Asia

Update: Interactive financial reports

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:59:59 -0400

The movement to adopt interactive financial reports, which most agree is a good idea, has not really taken off in the U.S. Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is still not mandatory, and U.S. companies collectively are lagging companies in Europe and Asia. In Europe, according to Financial Week, Basel II compliance is forcing banks to adopt XBRL. England is considering a move to require tax filings be filed in XBRL starting in 2010. At the SEC, the issue is hot apparently. A working group called XBRL US plans to release new interactive formats for 10-K and 10-Q filings this fall, and the agency is mulling whether to requiring all accelerated filers to use XBRL. Some proposals may be coming out this year. This would be a huge event for compliance and financial executives. You may want to start thinking about it.

For more:
- here's an article from Financial Week

Shortage of financial talent at home--and abroad

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:01:39 -0400

There has obviously been a lot of talk about outsourcing certain internal processes. The software-as-a-service movement seems to be intact. More service providers indeed seem bent on easing their customers concerns about the legitimacy of their services. See the next item on Google. What about the outsourcing of core financial functions. Well, there's a huge lack of talent that might make the idea interesting to you. There are some domestic providers of course--what about going offshore? Well, the fact is that there is a shortage of financial talent around the world. Deloitte surveyed more than 600 senior finance executives from 73 countries and found two-thirds thought that Asia's talent was limited or inadequate. Sixty percent said the same about Europe. At the same time, 42 percent said that they were barely able or unable to meet the demand for finance professionals.

For more on the survey:
- here's a write-up

New thinking: The real reason IPOs are heading overseas

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 20:01:39 -0400

The conventional wisdom as of late has been that Sarbox and other compliance laws have pushed would-be issuers beyond the U.S. to Europe and Asia. It's a tempting conclusion. But there are other reasons as well. A recent report suggests that European markets are simply out more issuer-friendly. The costs of going public lower and the first-day rise in stock prices are much lower. Some countries are more aggressively promoting the idea of home-grown IPOs. So when it comes to capital formation of this sort, the U.S. may be lagging in significant ways.

> Read the article from Slate
> Here's some background from the FierceSarbox Web site.