Financial Management (UK) articles from February 2005

Financial Management (UK) archives from February 2005

CIMA's worldwide community can come together and work as one to help the tsunami victims.(In Business)(rebuilding of schools)(Chartered Institute of Management Accountants)
February 1, 2005... While people talk in trite terms about the concept of a global village or how small the world has really become, no one could have predicted how the recent South-East Asian tsunami would demonstrate so literally how closely linked whole regions...

The Accounting Standards Board.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... The Accounting Standards Board has issued guidance in the light of the European Commission's adoption of an amended version of IAS39, "Financial instruments: recognition and measurement", in November. With reference to hedge accounting, the...

More than half of the FTSE All-Share companies are failing to comply with the Combined Code on corporate governance.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... More than half of the FTSE All-Share companies are failing to comply with the Combined Code on corporate governance. According to research by activist shareholder group Pirc, only 47 per cent of the firms surveyed said they were fully compliant...

The European Commission.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... The European Commission has set up a corporate governance forum to discuss best practice in member states and facilitate the convergence of national corporate governance codes. "The more that national corporate governance codes converge...

CIMA responds to tsunami disaster.(Institute News)(Chartered Institute of Management Accountants)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... The institute's Sri Lanka Division is working together with CIMA president Roland Kaye to find ways for members to help those worst affected by the recent Asian tsunami. Upali Ratnayake and his Colombo-based team are planning to identify...

Consolidation decision deferred to enable fine-tuning.(First In ...)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Proposals to consolidate three of the UK's leading accounting bodies have been stalled as the result of a decision by CIMA's governing council. Overall proposals for the consolidation were reconfirmed by the councils of CIMA, the Chartered...

Postal voting puts underfunded UK electoral system at risk of collapse.(Public Finance)
February 1, 2005... The head of the Electoral Commission has warned that a significant increase in the use of postal votes at the forthcoming UK general election could push the administrative system to breaking point. The commission's chairman, Sam Younger,...

Public bodies urged to issue sustainability reports.(First In ...)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Organisations in the public sector and their regulators should give sustainability a higher priority, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) has advised. Local authorities and central government departments are...

Institute fellows receive honours.(First In ...)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Richard Bowker FCMA, former chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), has been awarded a CBE in the new year's honours list for services to the rail industry. Bowker started his transport career when he joined London Underground's...

CIMA movers and shakers named.(Chartered Institute of Management Accountants )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... High-flying CIMA members Helen Weir, group finance director at Lloyds TSB; Andrew Higginson, finance and strategy director at Tesco; and Douglas Flint, finance director at HSBC, have been tipped to be among the top 50 business movers and...

Sir Andrew Likierman: professor of management practice at London Business School.(One 2 One)(Interview)
February 1, 2005... Performance-based measurement has had a bad press recently. Do you think that this is justified? The subject is rarely out of the news, but, like most things, it tends to get publicity only when things go wrong. With so much focus on...

Ready reckoner: AstraZeneca went beyond the call of duty by being first to produce its 2003 accounts under IFRS. But CFO Jon Symonds tells Ruth Prickett that, just because his finance team is quick off the mark, doesn't mean it is resting on its laurels.(international financial reporting standards)(chief financial officer)(Cover Story)
February 1, 2005... What was your first thought when the clock struck midnight on January 1? Did you confidently drink a toast to a prosperous 2005 or did you have the uneasy sense that a deadline had arrived and your company's accounts were about to turn into...

What price democracy? The UK rivals Ghana by administering one of the world's cheapest voting systems, but Camilla Berens finds that it is showing severe signs of strain.
February 1, 2005... Modern western societies generally agree that democracy is a Good Thing. Like religion, however, it has caused wars, rebellions, riots and protests--from the French revolution to the suffragette movement to the continuing violence in...

Chosen assets: when it comes to employee benefits, does your company try to cater for its people's every need, or does it grudgingly copy the competition? Louisa Roberts explains why firms need to make the effort if they want to retain their talent.
February 1, 2005... A quarter of the UK's employees were planning to leave their jobs over the new year, according to a survey conducted in November by market research firm YouGov. The desire to climb the career ladder and increase their pay were the two main...

Does your English let you down?(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... A SIMPLE technique for acquiring a swift mastery of good English has just been announced. It could double your powers of self-expression. It could pay you real dividends in business and social advancement, and give you added poise,...

How I improved my memory in one evening: the amazing experience of Robert Head.(Advertisement)
February 1, 2005... "Of course I place you! You're Bob Jones of Birmingham." "If I remember correctly--and I do remember correctly--John Bagshaw, the supermarket man, introduced me to you at the dinner of the Bowls Club three years ago in October." The...

Country risk: it's unfeasible for any company with an international presence to eliminate this factor, but Anthony Boczko explains some of the ways to minimise it.(Technical Matters)
February 1, 2005... Everyone's talking about globalisation its ethical pros and cons and the potential of vast emerging markets in, say, China. But overseas investment is not only a huge opportunity; it's also an enormous risk. To assess and manage this, you first...

The balanced scorecard: it remains the management accountant's benchmarking tool of choice well over a decade after its birth, but is it still up to the job? Malcolm Smith tests it out.(Technical Matters)
February 1, 2005... Management accounting information systems cannot live on financial measures alone. They require a mix of indicators to give a more balanced view of a firm's overall performance and provide current non-financials that could predict its future...