Bank Accounting & Finance articles from April 2006

Bank Accounting & Finance archives from April 2006

Internal control and operational risk: FDICIA, Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel II: regulatory overlaps can create advantages for risk-savvy institutions.(Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991)(Accord on the International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards, 2001 (Draft))(Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002)
April 1, 2006... Financial publications are increasingly highlighting the excessive' cost and administrative burden imposed by complying with Sarbanes Oxley ("SOA") requirements expressed by corporate CFOs. Banking managers have additional complaints about...

Overview of regulatory requirements.(Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991)(Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002)(Accord on the International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards, 2001 (Draft))
April 1, 2006... This sidebar reviews developments in internal control and operational risk during the past three decades and summarizes the key tenets of FDICIA, SOA and Basel II. FDICIA In 1991, in the wake of a series of failures of insured...

Critical accounting policy disclosures for financial institutions: a review of current practice, culled from 69 financial institutions' 2004 disclosures.
April 1, 2006... In December 2001, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released Cautionary Advice Regarding Disclosure about Critical Accounting Policies, encouraging companies to include a list of "Critical Accounting Policies" in Management's...

The case for the Virtual Bank: banks should reexamine carefully their overall cost structures.
April 1, 2006... Some years ago, Lowell L. Bryan wrote a book titled Breaking Up the Bank. (1) His thesis was that, investors were faced with "blind risk pools' when considering equity investments in U.S. banks. Bryan believed that investors could not...

FDICIA and Sarbanes-Oxley requirements: impact on bank audit fees: did bank audit fees increase less, compared to fees paid by other financial services companies?(Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991)
April 1, 2006... Consequences of the Enron-Andersen debacle of 2001 included sweeping reforms in many of the governance, financial reporting and independent auditing functions of public companies. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 ("SOA') required significant...

Implementing activity-based costing in the banking industry: benefits include the proper costing of transactions, the ability to trace specific costs to bank customers and the ability to measure customer and product profitability.
April 1, 2006... Activity-based costing ("ABC") is widely recognized as a superior method for allocating overhead costs. Much emphasis has been placed on the implementation of ABC in the manufacturing industry. However, the service industry benefits from this...

Should your board have a compliance committee? If the board of directors and senior management think compliance is important, it will be important to the organization.(Regulatory Update)
April 1, 2006... In January, three people sent me copies of a WALL Street Journal article entitled Compliance Panels Slowly Take Hold. (1) Undoubtedly, each thought the article would be of interest to me since I have spent nearly my entire career in the...

Data: is more better ... or is it simply more? beware the trade-off between detail and understanding.(Performance Measurement)(information management of banks)
April 1, 2006... The banking industry continues to mire itself in numeric minutia, virtually calculating itself into numbness. In the midst of all this it continues to search for meaning. Directors are awash in reports and analyses while responsibility and...

SEC proposals address Internet availability of proxy materials, tender offers and foreign issuer deregistration: new rules would expand the use of electronic delivery of proxy materials.(SEC Update)(Securities and Exchange Commission )
April 1, 2006... The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently proposed rules that would allow companies and other persons to use the Internet to satisfy proxy material delivery requirements. The SEC also proposed to amend its rules concerning the...