GLG News in Accounting & Financial Analysis

As  the  global  accounting  convergence process  progresses a  number  of  contentious  issues are  being  raised. This  analysis  takes  a  look  at  some  of  these  issues.

The subprime crisis started in America  but  has  stinged and burned  financial institutions and businesses  the  world over. The  referred  article speaks  of  downsizing and  sell off  by  Citigroup  at  CitiFinancial - a  retail loan supermarket  in  India  for  high interest  loans in India....

How can an SEC Commissioner who is obviously not familiar with Fair Value estimates call for changing the existing guidance? The value of something is zero if that is what you can buy and sell it for.    

Anti-fraud techniques within a company cannot be effective in preventing fraud if management is not committed to a fraud-free culture within the company.

Recently, stock prices of most public homebuilders have increased 20-30 percent.  This despite no visible signs of improvement in the overall housing industry.  It seems early in the cycle for these stock price upward movements, as it appears the housing market has not yet found bottom.  Equity buyers at the present stock prices must be patient and have a mid- to long-term perspective...

Homebuilders have recorded large inventory impairments over the last couple of years.  Most of these impairments have been for land and lots.  As these previously impaired lots are built on and a completed home is delivered, the land component as a percentage of Cost of Goods Sold may decline significantly.

I think the information presented in the article is consistent with Western Union picking up market share from competitors. Despite flat U.S. revenues over 05-07 period and likely near flat revenues from the U.S. in Q108 in part attributable to the Mexican results, Western Union has gained significant international market share over the 05-07 period and, with Q108 gains coming from China...

Short term Financial Instrument ( For trading purposes ) are bought in the Financial secondary market to be traded within a short term period normally less than one year, and could carry a maturity period of more than one year. The purchase (or Sale) of such an instrument in the secondary market is normally for liquidity purposes, and the proceeds are posted directly to the income statement. Medium...

Claiming a "mixed attribute" accounting model provides a better picture of a company's business and earnings engine, bank trade groups blast full fair value. The bank trade groups argue that periodic updating to fair value would lessen the predictive value of future cash flows.  They also argue that “a mixed measurement model is essential for the faithful representation of an entity’s business...

Depending upon management's classification of a security (i.e., either "trading" or "available for sale"), a charge may or may not appear on the income statement in the same period as the write-down on the balance sheet. If the security is classified as a trading security, the charge on the income statement will occur in the same period as the write-down.  However, if the security is classified...