Bank Accounting & Finance articles from December 2003

Bank Accounting & Finance archives from December 2003

Risk and government-sponsored enterprises: an overview.
December 1, 2003... For most of their existence, government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), such as the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), and the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs), have...

Regulation, convergence, and the new challenges to bank profitability.
December 1, 2003... Banks in the United States have gone through a sustained period of severely constrained revenues due to the prevailing economic conditions of the past three years. To retain profitability in this environment, they have cut costs, in many cases...

Implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley [section] 404: ensuring compliance, leveraging opportunities.
December 1, 2003... Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOA) was enacted in 2002, public companies have sought to grasp what complying with SOA's provisions will mean for them. Of particular concern is [section] 404, which established requirements for documenting,...

The dynamics of joint ventures, mergers, and acquisitions in the merchant processing business.
December 1, 2003... Not since the mid-1990s has there been a period with a greater merger and acquisition activity in the merchant business. Merchant processing (or acquiring) is the business of processing electronic payments for merchants, and valuations on these...

New capital proposals relating to structured finance.(Capital Requirements)
December 1, 2003... In early October 2003, the federal banking agencies issued and proposed new rules for two aspects of structured finance transactions: asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) programs and early amortization provisions in securitizations of...

SEC issues study on the adoption of a principles-based accounting system.(SEC Update)
December 1, 2003... The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff in the Office of the Chief Accountant and the Office of Economic Analysis recently prepared a study on the adoption of a principles-based accounting system by the US financial reporting system....

New challenges in compliance management.(Regulatory Outlook)
December 1, 2003... Lately, banks of all sizes and types have found themselves on the receiving end of examiners' warnings to improve their compliance management. Do these warnings signal a change in how examiners are evaluating compliance functions? In part, that...

IASB issues a standard on first-time adoption of international financial reporting standards.(International Standards)
December 1, 2003... In June 2000, the European Commission (EC) responsible for the implementation of various European Union (EU) directives and regulations adopted its communication, "The EU's Financial Reporting Strategy: The Way Forward." This communication...

FFIEC publication provides guidance for business continuity planning.(Risk Management)
December 1, 2003... A business continuity plan is a collection of procedures and information that is developed, compiled, and maintained to help an organization respond, recover, and resume in the event of a disaster. Some experts liken it to an insurance policy,...