Accounting Insight -April/June 2009

 

Global credit crunch: the role of the auditors The global credit crunch has proved traumatic for the international financial system as many institutions have reported huge write downs in asset values and some have been pushed into forced sale to prevent bankruptcy. In contrast to earlier corporate crises, such as Enron, WorldCom, or Barings, the role of auditors in this credit crunch appears to have received relatively limited media

The UK Financial System: lessons from Northern Rock One part of the Northern Rock debacle was the closing up of the money markets as a result of massive defaults in the USA sub-prime mortgage market. However, while the number of mortgage defaults was causing concern, what caused more concern, and the ultimate seizure of the global money markets, was that nobody was quite sure who was bearing the risk because the process of slicing, repackaging and passing on risk made it difficult to track who was holding what.

Doing deals during a recession The general consensus among solicitors, bankers and accountants in London is that closing deals is going to prove tougher than it has been for a long time in 2009. Let us take, for example, the “credit crunch.” Unfortunately, all of the signs for 2009 are that credit markets will remain tight. Commentators in the US are pencilling in 2010 as the year that relatively easy credit becomes available once more and, despite the Government’s platitudes, in the UK we tend to lag behind the US.

Wage inequalities and corporate governance Despite advances in corporate governance and social responsibility, income inequalities in the UK are increasing. Successive governments had hoped that remuneration committees would check excessive executive remuneration, but they seem to be unable or unwilling to do so.

Identifying effective leadership Years of research and analysis have produced an enormous library of books that the authors claim offer important findings and insights on leaders and leadership. But how useful in practice are all these creatively marketed advice books? And how can managers distinguish between books that are merely faddish and those that offer genuine insight?

Leadership functions in virtual teams Advances in information and communication technology have enabled a faster pace of change than in the past and have created jobs that are increasingly more complex and dynamic. The ability to work in virtual teams has started to play a big role in the recruitment and retention of employees. Virtual teams offer high flexibility and other potential benefits, but they also create numerous leadership