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Subscribe by RSSSEC Emphasizes Building a Culture of Compliance and Avoiding Misrepresentation
During a speech at the Regulatory Compliance Association’s (RCA) 2013 program on regulation, operations, and compliance, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner Luis Aguilar highlighted the importance of compliance practices being developed and maintained in the interest of investors.
Turning Points: Commodities Sluggish, Real Estate Prices Climbing
Here’s a wrap-up of key issues affecting global markets for fundamental investors. The BOJ got the green light to print gobs of yen. Commodities are sluggish, in part because Chinese demand is slowing.
What Is the Future of Financial Exchanges? (Video)
“While exchanges have a responsibility to provide fair and equal access to all market participants without violating public interest responsibility, they are dependent on a responsible financial ecosystem of lawyers,
How to Choose a Good Hedge Fund for Your Portfolio: Mark Anson’s Secret Formula
Evaluating the quality of a money manager is a perennially important topic. It’s all the more important when that money manager charges 2% of assets under management and 20% of any gains. Yes, that age-old conundrum of how to choose a good hedge fund for your portfolio remains a difficult task.
Book Review: The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis
The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis. 2013. Ben S. Bernanke.
Reviewed by Marc L. Ross, CFA
It is fitting that The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis should be published in the centennial year of the institution.
Poll: What Is the Primary Factor Bringing Down the Price of Gold?
In a poll conducted earlier this week in the CFA Institute Financial NewsBrief, we asked readers what was the primary factor in the recent decline in gold prices.
What is the primary factor bringing the price of gold to its recent sell-off level of $1,400?
Policy Perspectives: Hedge Accounting and Derivatives Use Disclosures Risky Business for Investors (Video)
Corporate disclosures on derivatives use and hedge accounting are complex and confusing, posing challenges for investors trying to assess the risk of companies involved in those activities.
Vincent Papa,
North Korea Nuclear Threat: Buy on the Dip?
With Kim Jong-un declaring that North Korea has entered a state of war with South Korea — not to mention cutting off a military hotline, threatening nuclear strikes, and shuttering Gaeseong, the joint North-South industrial complex — geopolitical tension in the Korean peninsula has been top of mind for global investors,
Bonus Caps for European Fund Managers: Good Policy or Regulatory Overreach?
The draft law recently backed by members of the European Parliament to cap bonuses for Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) fund managers in Europe sets up another tussle between those who favour free markets and those who believe that greater regulation is required to protect investors.
From Bust to Boom: Southeast Asia’s Capital Markets Getting It Right This Time
If you can’t make it in China, try Southeast Asia.
This seems to be the mantra these days among international banks and financial firms that want a foothold in Asia’s most coveted market but are turned off by regulatory requirements or stiff competition.
GIPS Standards: Not All Verifiers Are Created Equal
At the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) Annual Conference in Boston in September 2012, Mr. Carlo di Florio, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations,
Did the Gold Standard Work? Economics Before and After Fiat Money
Suddenly gold is being proposed as a cure-all for the weakening dollar, allowing it to retain its place as the international reserve currency — a trophy taken, not without a fight, from the British pound at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944.
Inside Bloomberg’s Twitter A-List (Well, At Least a Fraction of It)
Earlier this month, following the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to allow public companies to disclose corporate information through social media, Bloomberg announced that it had become
Behavioral Finance in Practice: Closing the “Behavior Gap”
If you are a regular reader of the New York Times‘s Bucks blog, there’s a good chance you have seen Carl Richards‘s simple-yet-elegant, black-and-white napkin sketches. He has a particular knack for taking behavioral concepts — say,
GIPS Standards: Not All Verifiers Are Created Equal
At the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) Annual Conference in Boston in September 2012, Mr. Carlo di Florio, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations,
Leading from the Center: Dalio, Hagan, and Freeman on Meditation and Leadership
Georgetown University’s McDonough Business School played host to a watershed event in the history of business school education on 9 April 2013. Dean David Thomas announced that Georgetown is going to teach meditation to its business school students in a semester-long course.
Separate Private Company Financial Reporting: A Word of Caution
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) recently initiated a project to create separate private company accounting standards. Meanwhile the Private Company Council (PCC) — formed to advise FASB on private company standards — is charged with identifying areas within existing U.S.
Inside Bloomberg’s Twitter A-List (Well, At Least a Fraction of It)
Earlier this month, following the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to allow public companies to disclose corporate information through social media, Bloomberg announced that it had become
KPMG Scandal Strengthens Case to Disclose Lead Partner in Public Company Audits
Will the alleged insider trading scandal involving ex-KPMG partner Scott London compel the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to finally require disclosure of the lead partner on public company audits? For many investors and regular readers of the financial press,
New SEC Guidance on Social Media Levels Playing Field for Investors
As technology advances, the rules that face the investment industry must advance with it. That means investors not currently using social media will need to get on board, or they could possibly miss out on the latest company disclosures.
Bitcoins: New Gold or Fool’s Gold?
A craze is sweeping the nation. Indeed, it is sweeping the world. That craze is Bitcoins, the decentralized, encrypted digital currency, introduced in 2009. Bitcoins, which have a permanently fixed supply,
Book Review: Quantitative Value
What do quant great Edward O. Thorp, behavioralist Jamies Montier, and value investing legends Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett have in common? These investment practitioners all make a seemingly incongruous appearance together in Quantitative Value,
Culture of Integrity Requires Financial Firms to Renew Focus on Middle Management
It seems like there is not a day that goes by without reading about some type of scandal involving a financial institution. Many people have come to view banks and financial services firms as dens of iniquity in which money,
Averting the Pension Cliff with Commonsense Accounting Principles
At the recent Global Investment Risk Symposium, Ron Ryan, CFA, of Ryan ALM, appealed for greater transparency and the application of commonsense principles in pension accounting, warning that without such changes the solvency of corporations,
Poll: Why Didn’t the Cyprus “Bail-In” Cause a Bank Run?
The recent “bail-in” of Cyprus by the EU, IMF, and European Central Bank troika forced depositors in Cyprus banks to turn over about 40% of their assets to the banking system. This action hasn’t caused a bank run in the greater eurozone yet,
Should All Financial Advice Providers be Required to Put Client Interests First?
The issue of creating a uniform fiduciary standard of conduct for investment advisers and broker-dealers in the U.S. has been hotly debated in recent years.
Although the U.S. Dodd-Frank Act gave
Corporate Governance Roundup: National Securities Regulation in Canada, Executive Pay in Germany and Greece
From plans to develop a national securities regulator in Canada and emerging executive-pay-plan voting rights in Germany to analyzing the independence of independent directors in Spain, it’s time to span the corporate governance globe to review important developments from the month of March.
Currency Wars: “The Fed is Playing with a Nuclear Reactor”
The United States is at war, but not in the conventional sense. There are no troops on the ground. There are no drone strikes. Instead, the weapon of choice is the US dollar and the “enemy” is America’s trading partners. Welcome to Currency War III.
Mis-selling: An Ethical Issue Facing Asia-Pacific Markets
Readers of our blog are likely aware that mis-selling was highlighted as one of the most serious ethical issues in the recent CFA Institute Global Market Sentiment Survey. When asked to select among six options,
Bank Regulatory Capital: Brewing Storm over Basel III Removal of Financial Reporting Information Filter
It remains challenging for investors to fully anticipate the consequences of forthcoming bank regulatory requirements, especially across interrelated strands of regulation. A case in point is a Basel III requirement eliminating filters relating to financial reporting information.