I had dinner last night as a guest ....

... of the CCAB, Belgian Branch and had to “sing for my supper” with a short talk on the Politicisation of the Accounting Standard-Setting Process.  Regular readers of my blog will know that this is a matter of great concern to me.  I used the opportunity to comment on a number of apparent contradictions in the current situation including:

·         The fact that political pressure on FASB to amend accounting standards seems to have been overlooked whilst any suggestion that the EU might want to influence the IASB is seen as overt political pressure – even if it is only asking the IASB to take on board the politically prompted changes made by FASB.

·         The large sums of money apparently being spent on lobbying activities in the USA compared to the almost nonexistent lobby activity in the EU.

·         The attention we seem to be giving to those who criticise mark-to-market whilst ignoring the strong support for mark-to-market from the CEO of perhaps the most successful bank in the current crisis, Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs.

·         A concern that regulation of the audit profession has made it far more difficult for auditors to assume a wider role in drawing attention to the level of risk inherent in a client’s business model.

I was pleasantly surprised at the level of support I received for my views – as well as the strong support for more people in the profession to speak up and more publicly participate in these discussions.

I also had an enjoyable dinner!

 Global Accounting  Mark to Market  Standards & Regulators  5 Comments June 16th, 2009