The FEI CFRI Conference…And More
Charlotte: Let’s never come here again because it will never be as much fun.
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I’ve just wrapped up two days of conference attendance here in New York City – The FEI Current Issues in Financial Reporting Conference and the Directorship Boardroom Leaders Forum.
How were these conferences the same?
- Attendees were corporate executives (CFOs at CFRI and General Counsels/Board members at Directorship) and the professional services providers (auditors, lawyers, consultants) who serve them.
- Almost everyone wore formal business attire. There were more women at CFRI, mostly men in very dark suits at Directorship.
- Rhetoric is pro-business, anti-regulation, cost consciousness and NYC/DC versus middle-America sensibilities.
- Almost everyone at these two conferences thinks the recession is pretty much over and the recovery has started …except for the companies attending CFRI that are still cutting/losing billions like GM and one Director from Ohio by way of the UK at the Directorship event.
- Both groups are acutely aware of the issue of executive compensation and have a hard time understanding why the media keeps focusing on it.
- Both conferences seemed to have no problem attracting plenty of paid attendees (800+ and ~200 respectively) and lots of quality vendor sponsors.
- CFRI: “…must attend event for preparers of corporate financial statements…latest accounting and reporting developments from SEC, FASB and IASB.”
- Directorship Boardroom Leaders Forum (BLF): “…the leading boardroom executives and governance professionals.”
- CFRI was very technical, tactical, hands on practical.
- Directorship BLF was all about law, lawyers and the people who hire them. Notable was a keynote from the Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, Myron Steele and an admission by Chairman, CEO & Editorial Director Jeffrey M. Cunningham that he had been a Director at Countrywide and thinks Angelo Mozilo has been unjustly maligned…
Herz was asked by Francine McKenna of Re: The Auditors what he thought about the major audit firms’ push for companies to move to IFRS, and how to respond to critics who may say, ‘If the firms are for it [IFRS, etc.] then we probably should be against it.” Herz replied:
I think the firms are genuine in their belief [of the value of convergence] but I think they kind of rushed it… and everyone said, ‘here’s another [Sarbanes-Oxley] 404.’ I told some of the [audit firm] leaders that ultimately, [the goal is] high quality convergence, not just [convergence] for the sake of convergence.”
Because IFRS adoption is not in the interest of investors, the CPA firm push for IFRS is contrary to the AICPA code of ethics, “Ask yourself whether the AICPA’s one-sided promotion of IFRS constitutes an attempt to serve or to fleece the public.”
Financial Times, November 2007 Deloitte urges new guidelines
James Quigley, Deloitte’s chief executive, has called for regulators to draw up new guidelines for the auditing profession to fit in with an emerging “principles-based” approach so firms have a basis for defending themselves if they are sued for making mistakes.
The head of the accounting firm told the FT that the profession needed a framework that would provide a “safe harbour” as the US moves towards a more principles-based approach to auditing and away from “bright line rules”. Thenew approach would require a firm to use its professional judgement instead of strictly adhering to rules.
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[…] lawyers and outside accounting experts the opportunity to charge a lot for finding loopholes. The global audit firms publicly support IFRS adoption in the US because it creates more work for them and may provide a back door opening for liability caps. The […]
[…] It was a busy couple of days in New York last week. I hadn’t planned on splitting my time between two conferences. But when one of my Twitter contacts said he would be at the Directorship Boardroom Leaders Forum and I looked at their agenda, I knew I had to do both. […]
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