Table of Contents
REGULATORY AND LEGISLATIVE NEWS
· New Agreement Could Jumpstart Stalled Small-Business Bill
· Climate Legislation Tabled, Smaller Energy Bill to Senate Floor
· Hearing on Transfer Pricing Concludes Substantial Income Shifting
· Rulemaking Process Begins for Dodd-Frank Act
· Are Washington’s Revenue Estimates Accurate?
· Global Impacts of New Financial Regulations
· FASB Releases Standard On Disclosures About Credit Quality, Allowance For Credit Losses
· Recent FASB Board Meetings - New Project Added on Repos
· FASB Releases Proposal on Disclosure Of Certain Loss Contingencies (Including Litigation)
· Update on Blue Ribbon Panel on Private Company Standard-Setting
· FEI-KPMG Webcast on IFRS for SMEs, Other Private Co. Issues, Held July 22
· IASCF Is Now the ‘IFRS Foundation’
· Additional FASB, IASB News
FERF UPDATE
· Treasury Technology Report Now Available!
· Deadline Extended for Benchmarking the Finance Function Survey
· Thank You to FERF Corporate Contributors!
WEBCASTS
· IFRS Update: What You Need To Know About The Latest IASB Proposal On Liabilities
· IT for Finance Executives - What You and Your Financial Team Need to Know
· Decision-Making 1.0: The Importance of High Quality Data and Rational, Objective Decision-Making Processes
· Decision-Making 2.0: How Financial Leaders Can Leverage 2.0 Technologies to Improve Decision-Making and Collaboration Among Finance Teams
CONFERENCES & EVENTS
· IFRS: Myths vs. Reality – A Breakfast Workshop
· Washington Policy Conference
· Strategic Financial Leadership Program
· 29th Annual Current Financial Reporting Issues Conference
· 5th Annual Hall of Fame Gala
FEI JOB LISTINGS
· Job ID: 21147 – VP, Global Financial Audit
WELCOME TO OUR NEW MEMBERS!
RESOURCES
REGULATORY AND LEGISLATIVE NEWS
New Agreement Could Jumpstart Stalled Small-Business Bill
After negotiations broke down on several occasions on a bill that would create a small business lending fund for smaller banks and provide some assistance to help jumpstart exports for the smallest U.S. companies, this week the bill may finally have a vote in the Senate. H.R. 5297, Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010 was originally introduced in the House back in May.
Yesterday, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) urged action in a Senate floor speech, as several amendments to the legislation are still pending. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) responded with this statement, urging action on republican amendments. These include a proposal to phase in a permanent estate tax fix, a provision to offer bonus depreciation to companies in 2010, repealing the general 1099 reporting requirements in the health care law, and the extension the research and development tax credit. Senate leaders hope to come to an agreement on the process for offering amendments to the bill, and intend to finish deliberations this week.
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Climate Legislation Tabled, Smaller Energy Bill to Senate Floor
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) decided last week to scrap climate legislation, instead focusing on a bipartisan energy bill released this week that responds to the oil spill and includes “popular” energy measures. The bill will not include a carbon cap or renewable electricity standard. Top White House and Senate leaders have exchanged allegations of blame and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) expressed frustration for Representatives who had made tough votes in favor of the House’s own version of climate change. Some of the measures the Senate does plan to include are Home Star energy efficiency upgrades and incentives for the conversion of trucking fleets to natural gas.
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Hearing on Transfer Pricing Concludes Substantial Income Shifting
The House Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing last Thursday to discuss issues with transfer pricing, specifically concerning the offshore transfer of United States’ intellectual property and other intangibles. Testimony centered on a 132-page report compiled by the Joint Committee on Taxation, which outlined the current trend in income shifting. Based on the analysis, testimony concluded “evidence of substantial income shifting through transfer pricing” and outlined administration proposals to address the problem. Those proposals include clarifying the definition of intangible property and suggesting a foreign tax credit limitation for intangible transfers that are subject to a low foreign effective tax rate.
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Rulemaking Process Begins for Dodd-Frank Act
In the past week, regulatory agencies have already opened up the call for commenting on the rulemaking process for the financial regulatory reform bill. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission released a list of 30 topics for rulemaking related to over-the-counter derivatives and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission released its list of rulemaking topics related to many different areas of the bill including derivatives. In many cases the legislation will not be effective for months or years, but it’s important for companies to begin understanding potential effects now. The regulatory agencies have extended an early open comment on the rules, which are just as important, if not more than the bill itself, in hopes of minimizing unintended consequences in the markets.
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Are Washington’s Revenue Estimates Accurate?
An opinion piece in last week’s Wall Street Journal, called “Washington’s Tax Oracles,” questions whether the secondary impacts of tax increases actually decrease overall tax revenues. In the article the author raises several points against the revenue estimating methodology of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT). “What they don't do is assume much if any macroeconomic effect from lower tax rates, and they often underestimate the real world behavioral responses by businesses, investors and workers,” resulting in higher-than-actual revenue estimates from tax increases, and lower-than-actual estimates from tax cuts. Thomas Barthold, chief of staff, JCT responded in a linked article backing up the group’s methodology.
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Global Impacts of New Financial Regulations
Last week, the Senate Banking Committee held a committee hearing examining, “Oversight on International Cooperation to Modernize Financial Regulation.” At the hearing, a panel of three witnesses discussed how the U.S. financial reform bill will impact regulations and competiveness across the globe.
At the hearing, the witnesses stressed the importance of achieving international unity to implement high-quality standards because without coordination, the U.S. could be at a competitive disadvantage. Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Kathleen Casey stressed the importance of gaining international cooperation in policy, principles and standards. To view the full witness list and statements from this hearing, click here.
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FASB Releases Standard On Disclosures About Credit Quality, Allowance For Credit Losses
On July 21, the Financial Accounting Standards Board announced the release of Accounting Standards Update No. 2010-20: Disclosures about the Credit Quality of Financing Receivables and the Allowance for Credit Losses. Additional information can be found in the two-page FASB in Focus and FASB plans to hold a webcast featuring FASB Board Member Tom Linsmeier with more information about the standard.
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Recent FASB Board Meetings - New Project Added on Repos
On July 28, the FASB chairman announced that a new project was added to FASB's agenda on repurchase agreement (repo) accounting. (According to the bankruptcy examiner for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., this issue and related disclosure or lack thereof is said to have contributed significantly to the downfall of Lehman Brothers.) The board also discussed its Insurance Contracts project.
On July 21, the FASB board met to discuss proposed conforming amendments to various Topics of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification™ to be consistent with the guidance and terminology in Topic 820, Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures. FASB also held a number of joint videoconference meetings with the International Accounting Standards Board on Leases and Insurance Contracts.
Results of FASB board meetings are posted same-day or next day in FASB’s News Center.
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FASB Releases Proposal on Disclosure of Certain Loss Contingencies (Including Litigation)
On July 20, FASB released an Exposure Draft of a Proposed Accounting Standards Update on Disclosure of Certain Loss Contingencies. This in effect is a reissued ED of an earlier ED that was controversial, particularly regarding proposals for disclosures around litigation contingencies. Read more in the FEI Summary.
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Update on Blue Ribbon Panel on Private Company Standard-Setting
The Blue Ribbon Panel on Private Company Standard Setting held its third meeting on July 19 (see agenda for the meeting and minutes of previous meetings) The chair of FEI’s Committee on Private Company Standards (CPC-S), Daryl Buck, serves as a member of the Blue Ribbon Panel.
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FEI-KPMG Webcast on IFRS for SMEs, Other Private Co. Issues, Held July 22
On July 22, FEI and KPMG co-sponsored a webcast on private company accounting, IFRS for Small and Medium Entities and other issues relating to private company accounting, including an update on the Blue Ribbon Panel on Private Company Standard Setting (discussed above). See the archived webcast.
Additionally, FEI CPC-S, in conjunction with Grant Thornton, cosponsored a webcast on June 22 about private company accounting. You can still view the archived webcast here.
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IASCF Is Now the IFRS Foundation
As a reminder, effective July 1, the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation was renamed the IFRS Foundation and Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa was named chairman of the board of the trustees. Separately, IASCF recently announced it has published its Annual Report.
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Additional FASB, IASB News
Additional FASB, IASB News can be found in FEI’s FASB-IASB News Roundup.
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FERF UPDATE
Treasury Technology Report Now Available!
Finance organizations must perform critical functions in a world of increasing complexity and tighter regulation. External factors, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, have increased financial compliance costs, particularly in the areas of internal controls documentation, monitoring, auditing and financial reporting. These factors have led to investments in technology solutions, rather than increased headcount, which automate manual processes.
This new research report describes the technologies that treasury organizations use to manage liquidity and automate tasks traditionally performed manually, and describes the treasury capabilities that they would like to have in future technology. FERF staff interviewed treasury executives from 10 companies for this research project. Executives interviewed were asked to describe the current types of technologies that they use to manage their treasury operations, why they selected those technologies, whether they planned to acquire new technology and the capabilities that they would specify in making future technology investments.
>>Download the full report here.
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Deadline Extended for Benchmarking the Finance Function Survey
The 2nd Annual “Benchmarking the Finance Function Survey,” from FERF, in collaboration with Robert Half International, will now be open until Fri., July 30. Your participation will provide valuable data for fellow FEI members, regulators and the press and will document current trends in finance.
The survey should take less than 30 minutes to complete. Since this survey will be sent to all executive members of FEI, we ask for your email address to avoid compiling duplicate responses from the same company. All responses are confidential and participants will remain anonymous.
The FERF Executive Report analyzing the results of this survey is expected to be available at the 29th Annual Current Financial Reporting Issues (CFRI) Conference on Nov. 15 and 16 in New York.
>>Take the survey here.
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Thank You to FERF Corporate Contributors!
Our utmost THANKS and APPRECIATION to our corporate donors, whose generosity funded FERF research this year! FERF Major Gift donors ExxonMobil Corporation and Microsoft Corporation, along with our President’s Circle Donors, provided the much-needed support to produce the cutting-edge research and benchmarking tools available to all FEI members. Thank you for your continued generosity – we couldn’t do it without you!
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WEBCASTS
IFRS Update: What You Need To Know About the Latest IASB Proposal On Liabilities
Presented by Grant Thornton
Aug. 12| 1:00 p.m. Eastern | 1 hour | 1 CPE credit available
Free for FEI Members and Nonmembers
Register here.
This complimentary webcast will be of interest to anyone whose company has liabilities. Join us as we cover the IASB's proposals for changing the recognition and measurement of liabilities.
Take away key points as we compare the proposed measurement requirements for liabilities to those in the existing IAS 37 and U.S. GAAP. Learn how to apply the proposed recognition requirements in a special section on liabilities arising from lawsuits.
Featured Presenter:
· Gary Illiano, national partner in charge of international and domestic accounting Grant Thornton LLP
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IT for Finance Executives - What You and Your Financial Team Need to Know
Presented by The Knowledge Congress
Sept. 24 | 12:00 p.m. Eastern| 2 Hours | 2 CPE credits available
Enter discount code ferf1883 in the "Apply Discount" section and save $50.
Register here.
Please note: This event is a re-broadcast of the LIVE event that originally ran on July 13. All of the top-caliber speakers will return for a live audience question and answer session.
In the competitive and fast-paced environment we live in, finance executives must continually be in-the-know with information technology to be able to make proper decisions. As finance executives, you can no longer rely solely on the expertise of your IT advisors as many systems and programs have features that only you can understand and evaluate. Making the right technology decisions can make or break your tenure at your firm. This event will discuss IT fundamentals as they relate to finance professionals.
The Knowledge Group is producing a 2-hour rebroadcast of this event. Join and you’re sure to know more about the latest. Please click the registration button to enroll in this course today.
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Decision-Making 1.0: The Importance of High Quality Data and Rational, Objective Decision-Making Processes
Presented by arcplan, Inc.
Oct. 20 | 2:00 p.m. Eastern| 1 Hour | 1 CPE credit available
Register here.
In our knowledge-worker driven economy, high-quality decision-making is a necessary core competence for organizational success. The financial performance of most organizations is a direct result of the quality of decisions made by professionals who help produce revenue, account for costs, support customers, develop and deliver products and services, etc. To be most effective, individuals and groups need high-quality inputs and sound decision-making processes. This webinar will address both these needs by discussing:
· How organizations can ensure that decision makers have access to high-quality data that is presented in a usable format and in a timely fashion so they can make accurate decisions regarding events, trends and KPIs.
· The biases (e.g., anchoring effect, confirmation bias, representativeness heuristic, framing effects) that can impede effective decision-making by individuals.
· The interpersonal and group dynamics (e.g., groupthink, siloed approaches) that can reduce collaboration and misdirect collective thought processes.
· Strategies that financial leaders and their teams can employ to guard against these risks.
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Decision-Making 2.0: How Financial Leaders Can Leverage 2.0 Technologies to Improve Decision-Making and Collaboration Among Finance Teams
Presented by arcplan, Inc.
Nov. 18 | 3:00 p.m. Eastern| 1 Hour | 1 CPE credit available
Register here.
Individuals and groups make thousands of decisions a day that ultimately determine the financial performance of their organizations. This webinar will pick up where the first webinar left off by identifying ways in which financial decision-making processes can be improved by leveraging 2.0 tools and technologies. It will specifically focus on:
· The influence that web 2.0 tools have on decision making in people’s daily lives.
· 2.0 technological innovations (e.g., wikis, chat features, user profiles, content rating, voting) and the benefits of using them to improve finance operations at the workplace.
· How leading organizations can use similar technologies in-house to improve collaboration and decision making.
· The importance of strategic goals and objectives in determining which tools and technologies to use, and how to use them.
· Examples of solutions that utilize a blend of mature and new technologies for business applications.
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CONFERENCES & EVENTS
IFRS: Myths vs. Reality – A Breakfast Workshop
Co-sponsored by Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) and FEI
Sept. 8 | 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. | Executive Conference Center | New York, NY
Register here.
Many companies have misperceptions about what it will mean to change over from GAAP to IFRS. Come learn from those with experience. Hear how major companies, such as IBM and Thompson-Reuters made the transition. Our speakers will discuss some of the issues that they confronted, and you’ll also hear from several IFRS experts from the leading public company accounting firms.
Speakers include:
· Linda Walker, Senior Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer, Thomson Reuters Corporation
· Aaron Anderson, Director, IFRS Policy and Implementation, IBM Corporation
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Washington Policy Conference
Sept. 20-21 | Washington Court Hotel | Washington, D.C.
Register here.
Featured Speakers Include:
· Kathleen L. Casey, Commissioner, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
· Hon. Douglas Shulman, Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service
· Hon. David M. Walker, President and Chief Executive Officer, Peter G. Peterson Foundation
As Congress deliberates on dozens of sweeping policy initiatives this year, FEI is bringing together key business and government leaders to provide insights on considerations for senior-level financial executives and their companies.
General Sessions Include:
· Facilitating American Competitiveness through Tax Reform.
· Fiscal and Economic Policy and its Impact.
· Energy: Strategies, Policy & Best Practices.
· A Legislative & Regulatory Update for the C-Suite.
· Policy Today and its Impact.
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Strategic Financial Leadership Program
Presented by Tuck Executive Education at Dartmouth College
Oct. 24-29 | Tuck School of Business | Hanover, NH
Enter discount code ‘FEI’ to receive a 10% discount off the program fee.
Register here.
The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth is launching a 5-day course entitled the Strategic Financial Leadership Program (SFLP).
The program is all about the nexus of finance, strategy and leadership. SFLP is designed specifically for senior financial executives, their direct reports and high potential financial staff. The goal of SFLP is to broaden these finance professionals’ strategic perspective, while at the same time expanding individual leadership self-awareness to better lead and execute strategy.
In one intensive week, SFLP provides the tools to address this critical intersection of strategic thinking, individual leadership, and value creation. SFLP also integrates a hands-on action learning project of strategic and financial relevance to your company.
The same finance, strategy and leadership faculty who have helped make Tuck’s MBA top-ranked also teach in SFLP.
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29th Annual Current Financial Reporting Issues (CFRI) Conference
Nov. 15-16 | New York Marriott Marquis Times Square | New York City, NY
Register here.
Focused on economic challenges and regulation reform, CFRI will detail the latest accounting and reporting developments from the FASB, SEC and IASB.
Key topics include FASB/IASB technical accounting updates, future of lease and contingencies reporting, revenue recognition, Controller’s Roundtable on top-of-mind business issues, Q&A with the FASB and the SEC and more.
Keynote Speakers …
· Harvey J. Goldschmid, former SEC Commissioner
· Zanny Minton-Beddoes, The Economist’s economics editor
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5th Annual Hall of Fame Gala
Nov. 15 | The New York Palace Hotel | New York City, NY
Reserve your place today!
The FEI Hall of Fame provides recognition to senior financial executives who have epitomized the performance, leadership and integrity of the most exemplary financial professionals throughout their careers.
Please join us at this year’s prestigious black-tie Hall of Fame Gala as we celebrate the 2010 Class of Inductees, Karl M. von der Heyden, former vice chairman of the board of directors and chief financial officer of PepsiCo. Inc., and Ulyesse J. LeGrange, retired senior vice president and chief financial officer of ExxonMobil Corp.'s U.S. Oil and Gas Operations.
All proceeds benefit the work of Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF). Visit www.feihall.org for more information. If you are interested in becoming a Hall of Fame sponsor please contact Lorna Raagas at 973.765.1033.
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FEI JOB LISTINGS
Job ID: 21147 VP, Global Financial Audit
Location: New York
The Vice President reports to the General Auditor and provides leadership and management for the Internal Audit department. This position assists the General Auditor and the Audit Committee in exercising their fiduciary responsibilities and apprises the Board of Directors (via the Audit Committee) of any significant developments warranting their consideration or action. This position is responsible for all aspects of audit related to Finance and Corporate Services. This position provides functional leadership, with global functional standard setting and provides subject matter expertise globally.
Key Business Relationships:
· Chief Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer & the Finance Leadership Team
· General Counsel, Human Resources
· Audit Planning Board & Plan Owners
For further details about this job opportunity, click here.
To view more jobs, visit FEI’s Career Center.
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WELCOME TO OUR NEW MEMBERS!
Congratulations to all the new members accepted in the last 30 days. Click here to see a complete list.
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RESOURCES AT www.financialexecutives.org
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