10/18/2006
issue 209
From: |
Colleen Cunningham
President and CEO
Financial Executives International
Financial Executives Research Foundation
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 |
To: |
FEI Members |
Date: |
October 18, 2006 |
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All,
As you all are probably aware at this point, FEI is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year! Some of the early chapters are also celebrating! I am on my way to the Pittsburgh Chapter, which is having a 75th Anniversary Gala Celebration. Denny Beresford, former Chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and I are the dinner speakers. Denny is one of the recipients of our inaugural FEI Hall of Fame awards this year. Looking forward to seeing former FEI President Bob Moore at the celebration tonight as well - Bob is also one of the Hall of Fame recipients this year!
n FASB Update n
Today's FASB Board Meeting
Earlier today, the FASB board continued to redeliberate its June 2005 Exposure Draft "Business Combinations" (specifically, applying the acquisition method to specific types of intangibles, including acquired workforce, reacquired rights and preexisting relationships (EITF 04-1), and whether an acquirer should recognize measurement period adjustments retrospectively or prospectively).
Other matters discussed included FASB's Derivatives Disclosures project (specifically, whether gains and losses on hedged items should be included in tables summarizing an entity's use of derivatives, and whether those tables should include gains and losses on all derivatives and related hedged items that existed throughout the reporting period, at the end of the reporting period, or both).
Additionally, FASB was scheduled to continue its discussion of the Elements phase of the Conceptual Framework project, and discussed alternatives for amending the isolation guidance of FAS 140, "Accounting for Transfers of Financial Assets and Extinguishments of Liabilities."
This afternoon, FASB was scheduled to continue to redeliberate its Exposure Draft, "The Fair Value Option for Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities." Various issues raised in comment letters were to be discussed, including effective date and transition.
Highlights from the meeting are in this FEI Summary. Additional details on today's FASB board meeting can be found in the board handout available here. Minutes for FASB board meetings are posted here.
n IASB Update n
IASB, FASB to Hold Joint Meeting Next Week
The FASB and IASB will hold their biannual joint meeting October 23-24 at FASB headquarters in Norwalk, Conn. (The April 27-28 joint meeting was held at the IASB.) Items on the agenda include business combinations, conceptual framework, financial statement presentation, insurance, liabilities and equity, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on convergence efforts and revenue recognition. Additional details on topics to be discussed at the joint meeting can be found in the agenda papers posted here.
n SEC Update n
SEC Considers Amendments to Tender Offer Best-Price Rule
Earlier today, the SEC held an open commission meeting to consider whether to adopt amendments to the best-price rule for issuer and third-party tender offers under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The amendments would clarify that the best-price rule applies only with respect to the consideration offered and paid for securities tendered in a tender offer and should not apply to consideration offered and paid according to employment compensation, severance or other employee benefit arrangements entered into with security holders of the issuer or subject company. At press time, the results of the meeting were not available. The agenda for the meeting is posted here, and further information is expected to be posted to www.sec.gov.
SEC to Consider Section 404 Proposed Guidance, Other Matters on December 13
The SEC has announced it has slated an open commission meeting on December 13 to discuss proposed guidance for management relating to the internal control reporting requirements under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Additional matters to be discussed at the meeting include Foreign Private Issuer Deregistration, Internet Availability of Proxy Materials and Securities Exchange Act Rule 14a-8. (The last item was originally to be discussed at today's SEC meeting, as noted here.)
Additional information on Section 404-related developments is available in FEI's Section 404 blog; to receive real-time email updates, enter your email address here.
Executive Compensation Disclosure - Transition Questions and Answers
Recently, the SEC posted Transition Questions and Answers: Executive Compensation and Related Person Disclosure relating to SEC's new executive compensation and related person disclosure rule, which goes into effect this year.
Audit Firm Guidance on SAB 108
FEI continues to receive audit firm guidance relating to SAB 108, Quantifying Financial Statement Restatements. The latest summaries have been posted to our SAB 108 webpage here.
n PCAOB Update n
Proposed Revisions to AS2 Coming this Fall, Olson Says
In a speech delivered at an NACD conference yesterday, PCAOB Chairman Mark Olson said he anticipates issuing proposed revisions to Auditing Standard No. 2, An Audit of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting Conducted in Conjunction with an Audit of the Financial Statements (AS2), this fall. He added that the comment period on the PCAOB's proposed revisions will "overlap sufficiently" with the comment period on the SEC's anticipated proposed guidance for management relating to Section 404 (see above under SEC). Olson also outlined four objectives for the AS2 revisions, and noted the PCAOB has been working with practitioners to develop implementation guidance for auditors of smaller public companies.
Staff Q&A on "Auditing Fair Value of Share Options Granted to Employees"
Yesterday, the PCAOB issued guidance in the form of "Staff Questions & Answers" (Q&A) on "Auditing Fair Value of Options Granted to Employees." The Q&A is available here, and a related press release has been posted here.
n COSO Update n
RFP Issued for Development of Guidance on Monitoring
Earlier today, COSO issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) in which interested audit firms, professional services firms and others can apply to lead a team to develop COSO guidance on use of the Monitoring component of COSO's Internal Control-Integrated Framework. The aim is to make management's assessment of internal control over financial reporting more efficient and effective.
As noted in a related press release issued by COSO today the goal of the project is to issue the Monitoring guidance by year-end 2007. As further detailed in the RFP, it is contemplated that an initial "white paper" or "preliminary views" document will be completed in Spring 2007, followed by a public comment period, with the final document aimed at being issued by year-end 2007. November 1 is the deadline for interested parties to submit a Notice of Intent to Respond, with completed proposals due November 21. Applicant interviews will be conducted by COSO in December.
FEI Rotates COSO Board Representative
FEI's representative on the COSO board, Nick Cyprus, recently rotated off the board. I'd like to thank Nick for his service as our COSO board representative, during which time COSO issued two major publications, on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and Guidance for Smaller Public Companies. Edith Orenstein, FEI's Director, Technical Policy Analysis, has assumed the FEI position on the COSO board. Questions about COSO projects and FEI participation in those projects can be directed to Edith at eorenstein@FinancialExecutives.org.
n AICPA Update n
Second Exposure Draft Issued on Valuation Standards
On October 16, the AICPA issued a second Exposure Draft (ED) -- revised from initial ED issued in 2005 -- of a Proposed Statement on Standards for Valuation Services (SSVS) entitled, "Valuation of a Business, Business Ownership Interest, Security, or Intangible Asset." As noted in a related press release, the standard would apply to AICPA members who perform valuation services in a variety of circumstances, including tax, mergers and acquisitions, litigation, financial planning and fair value measurements in financial reporting.
"The AICPA valuation standard will provide CPAs with a consistent set of nationally recognized guidelines for the valuation of a business, business ownership interest, security or intangible asset in the unique context of a CPA's practice," said Michael Crain, CPA/ABV, Chair of the AICPA Business Valuation Committee. The comment deadline on the ED is December 15.
n Committee News n
FEI Committees Support Efforts to Eliminate Withholding Tax
FEI's Committee on Government Business and Committee on Taxation jointly signed onto a letter of support, legislation recently introduced by Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif). As drafted, the legislation would eliminate the mandatory 3 percent withholding tax on payments made from federal, state and local government entities for goods and services. This provision was recently enacted as part of the tax reconciliation bill signed by the President in May.
The Government Withholding Relief Coalition, which sent the letter of support for the H.R. 6242, is already meeting with key House and Senate staff. The Coalition hopes Congress will take up this important legislation shortly after it convenes in January.
For more information, please contact Mark Prysock.
n FERF Update n
Be Acknowledged at FEI's CFRI Conference
Hopefully, you have received FERF's Annual Fund appeal, mailed last month, outlining the specific benefits and programs available to FEI members. If you have not yet had the opportunity to respond to the appeal, please take advantage of this fast and simple way to pledge your personal support of $100 to enable FERF to continue to serve our profession. In addition, we sincerely hope that your company might consider an additional Corporate Leadership Donation in order to receive benefits for you and your staff.
As an added benefit to pledging your support now, your personal annual gift for FY 2007 will be acknowledged in a special FERF Executive Report, "Survey on Income Tax Disclosures," which will be released in hardbound format at FEI's Current Financial Reporting Issues (CFRI) Conference in New York on November 16-17. This report will also be distributed in pdf format to all FEI members.
Make your pledge now in time to be acknowledged at CFRI. A simple email to jrussell@FinancialExecutives.org is all that is needed.
Thank you in advance for your consideration. If you've already given -THANK YOU - your support will enable us to stay on the cutting edge of financial issues and trends and provide quality financial research for financial executives.
FREE REGISTRATION - Nov. 15 Academe Meets Practice Conference-5 CPE credits
Register and get more information here.
This conference is intended to foster interaction between corporate executives and business school professors, convey a better understanding and finer appreciation of real-world challenges faced by financial executives and enable academics to design better business school programs through development of practical research that can be implemented by practitioners. Attendance is complimentary for all FEI members. For more information or to register for the event, click here.
n Resources n
FEI/FERF Executive Compensation Survey
How does your pay stack up against that of your peers? FEI and Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) have teamed to create an executive compensation survey exclusively for FEI members. If you haven't already responded to the survey, please consider it or keep an eye out for a follow up e-mail-your participation is crucial in order to compile meaningful results. Please have your compensation data (base, bonus, long-term incentives, and retirement benefits) available prior to completing the survey.
All responses are confidential, and participants will remain anonymous. All U.S. FEI members will automatically receive a copy of the results in an upcoming FERF report. If you've already responded-THANK YOU! If you have any questions, please contact cgraziano@FinancialExecutives.org or dalbergo@FinancialExecutives.org.
Get FEI News Via RSS Feeds or Email
Add FEI news releases to your inbox or RSS feed. Sign up here.
Oct. 20 at 2 pm ET, 11 am PT
FEI New Member Orientation
Register here.
All FEI members are welcome to participate.
Audit Committee Oversight of Audit Best Practices, by Moody's
The audit committee of the board has been a focal point of governance reforms in recent years, with heightened attention paid to the integrity of financial reporting, internal controls and compliance and risk management processes. This comment describes how Moody's Investor Services views best practices for the role of the audit committees in overseeing internal audit. Access the "Special Comment" that is based on interviews with more than 400 audit committee chairmen of large U.S. and Canadian companies, along with many internal audit professionals.
RFP Template for Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting
Are you are searching for the best-in-class Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting? Longview Solutions has created an RFP Template, contained within its Performance Management Platform, which has been used by many of the world's largest and most complex Fortune 500 organizations to transform finance. This template is meant to be a guideline to ensure that you maximize the ROI from your planning project. To download this RFP Template, click here.
Financial Executive Seeking Comments on the Future of Corporate Finance, CFO Role, the Profession and Its Professionals, etc.
For the FEI@75 feature of Financial Executive in December, the editors are seeking your comments on what you expect corporate finance - and your job (and that of your successors) - to be like in the future. Will you be replaced by technology? Will you spend even more time on compliance? Will Sarbanes-Oxley go the way of the dinosaur? Will the value of outside audit firms diminish - or at least the fees?
Why not do some brainstorming, and share your thoughts with your peers - and become part of FEI history -- by getting your comments in the December magazine feature?
Contact Ellen Heffes or Jeff Marshall by Oct. 30. We want to hear from you. Feel free to send your thoughts via email, with your name and title, or set up a brief phone conversation. Thank you!
n Webcasts n
Nov. 7 at 2 pm ET, 11 am PT
Moving Beyond Sarbanes-Oxley
Sponsored by Paisley Consulting
Free for FEI members and non-members; 1 CPE Credit available
Register here.
Join Paisley Consulting to discuss extending your SOX implementation to address broader governance, risk and compliance initiatives such as operational risk, integrated audit and compliance beyond financial controls.
During this one-hour webcast you will learn:
- How to bridge the gap between compliance, risk management and audit
- How to implement best practices for a top-down, risk-based approach and integrated audit.
- How to build upon your existing SOX best practices
Nov. 8 at 11 am ET, 8 am PT
Shared Services - A Case Study in Realizing the Elusive Goal of Process Excellence
Sponsored by 170 Systems
Free for FEI members and non-members; No CPE Credit available
Register here.
Steve Jolly, Vice President, Genpact (formerly known as GE Capital International Services), will present a case study of outsourcing the Procure-to-Pay Operations of a $20B manufacturing company consistently ranked by business magazines around the world as the US, Asia, Europe and the world's most admired company. Steve will discuss the motivation for the initiative, and the step-by-step transition from decentralized P2P across a dozen business units to Shared Services, to Offshoring, to Outsourcing, to leveraging key technologies to globally connect shared service centers to the operations they support. Steve will conclude with key implications and recommendations.
n Conferences n
Oct. 26-27, FEI's Private Company Forum
Sheraton Boston, Boston MA
Register here.
This valuable day-and-a-half executive seminar is sponsored by PriceWaterhouseCoopers Private Company Services and addresses issues specific to you, the private company executive. Come and learn from the experts regarding:
- Unscrambling International Insurance
- Alternative Funding and Investment Strategies
- Negotiating and Influencing for Success
- State and Local Taxes - Managing the Ever-Changing Environment
- Systems Controls: Best Practices for Private Companies
- Private Companies: In Pursuit of Sustainable Growth
- Revealing China's Mysteries
- FASB and Policy Initiatives Affecting Private Companies
Don't miss former Celtics player and Head Coach M.L. Carr address Private Company Forum attendees over lunch! TIME IS RUNNING OUT! Download your registration form here.
Oct. 27, University of California Berkeley 17th Annual Conference on Financial Reporting
San Francisco Marriott Hotel
8 CPEs available - FEI members receive a $50.00 discount by inserting "FEI" under the Special Guest Code
Register here
Attracting over 300 attendees each year, this conference brings together accounting standard-setters, enforcement officials, corporate financial executives and professional and academic accountants to discuss current issues in financial accounting and corporate reporting.
In today's business and regulatory environment, it is essential that preparers and users of financial statements be current on the latest financial reporting trends and issues. Speakers and panelists include: Board members representing FASB, IASB, AICPA, and PCAOB; key officials from the SEC, AcSEC, EITF, IMA, and representatives from Cisco Systems, Deloitte & Touche, FEI, Hewlett Packard, Intel, KPMG, Levi Strauss, Microsoft, and PWC.
For more information or to be added to the mailing list, please call Dayna Haugh, (510) 642-6334 or e-mail: cfrm@haas.berkeley.edu.
November 2, Bank of America Auditorium, 100 Federal Street, Boston
Fourth Annual Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting (ALPFA) Conference
The conference will be from 4:30 pm until 6 pm, and a reception will follow from 6 pm-9 pm at the BC Club. The fee for non members is $85, which includes a one-year membership to ALPFA.
For more information, click here.
November 8-9, Milan, Italy
The Changing Role of Today's CFO - New Rules and Strategies
Free to FEI members
Financial Executives International and Associazione Nazionale Direttori Amminstrativi e Finanziari (our Italian counterparts) have joined together to sponsor a bilateral conference on financial reporting. The program begins the evening of November 8 with a cocktail reception at the Borsa Italiana, the Italian Stock Exchange, followed by a full day at the Palazzo Mezzanotte Congress and Training Centre - located within the Borsa Italiana.
Topics include:
- Basel II Update - Accessing the Debt & Equity Markets
- Adapting to 262 Law: The Italian Sarbanes-Oxley
- New Trends in Outsourcing
- Internal Controls Framework Status and Perspective
- IFRS - GAAP Convergence: Myth or Reality for SME's?
For more agenda information, click here.
Nov. 16-17
Current Financial Reporting Issues Conference (CFRI)
Marriott Marquis, New York, NY
Register here.
Join us for the premier financial reporting event of the year with Fortune 1000 CFOs and Controllers from around the country. Plan to examine current reporting issues, with an eye towards simplifying and shaping the future of financial reporting.
Conference Highlights:
- Accounting and Reporting Updates by the FASB, SEC and the IASB
- Controllers' Roundtable
- What's new with Section 404 Compliance
- The impact of FASB's new interpretation on accounting for uncertainty in income taxes
Featured Speakers:
- Neil Cavuto, Vice President, Anchor and Managing Editor, FOX News' Your World with Neil Cavuto
- Robert Herz, Chairman, FASB
- Conrad Hewitt, Chief Accountant, SEC
- Mark W. Olson, Chairman, PCAOB
Rules of the Road - The Board's Expanding Expectations of the CFO
December 1, The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, Naples, FL
Sponsored by FEI and the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD)
New governance regulations have resulted in a closer relationship between chief financial officers and audit committee members of the board. With this new dynamic comes inherent tension. Learn how other companies are overcoming these challenges and building strong board/CFO relations to enhance risk management. This highly interactive format fosters maximum exchange between attendees and a faculty of seasoned board members, audit committee chairs and CFOs.
For more information or to register, go here.
FEI Summit 2007 - Save the Date!
May 20-22. Hynes Convention Center. Boston, MA. Conference
FEI Summit 2007
n Job Listing n
Job 11712 - CFO
With revenues approaching $75 million, this innovative, private-equity backed company in the Northeast United States is a leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of pressure-sensitive tapes and films for the graphic arts, engineered films and other niche markets. Reporting to and working closely with the President, the Chief Financial Officer will be a strong leader and strategic partner in developing the growth plan, driving constructive change, improving profitability and performance, and ensuring the financial integrity of the company.
He or she will manage all financial aspects of the company, the preparation and accuracy of all financial reporting and the development of information systems and operational metrics. As a key contributor to the company's corporate and business development activities, this position will have significant interaction with senior and mid-level management, the board, the private investor group and external stakeholders such as the banking group, attorneys and auditors. An undergraduate degree in accounting, economics or finance is required. A CPA is strongly preferred, and an MBA would be advantageous.
For further details about this job opportunity and to view more jobs, visit the FEI Job Center
n New Member Welcome n
Congratulations to all the new elections in the last 30 days. See a complete list.
n Resources at www.FinancialExecutives.org n
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Copyright © 2006 by Financial Executives International (FEI).
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