Convergence

I've been invited to speak at the IASC Foundation Conference in Frankfurt about financial analysts' views on convergence of accounting standards, specifically the convergence of US GAAP and IFRS. Rather than going into the details, I addressed the direction which convergence should take in the longer term by summarising the 12 principles of the Comprehensive Business Reporting Modell of the CFA Institute. There were a lot of sceptic vibes to be felt from the huge audience (some 400 people), especially from preparers of financial statements about the full fair value postulate. But there you are: debate is only advanced by bold ideas - I think I can say that since those ideas are not mine alone. The presentation is available online.

The end of net income?

It was very interesting to participate in a rather controversial roundtable organised by Université Paris-Dauphine on the subject of net income and performance reporting. The fact that the event was held in French posed quite a challenge, but I hope that my presentation was comprehensible nonetheless.

Coming of age of pan-European Pensions

Being on the CFA Institute Retainer Speaker Programme, I was invited to give a presentation to CFA Romania, following the Head of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. It was a pleasure to comply with that request of course, especially since the event was combined with the CFA Award ceremony. After Warsaw, Vienna, Budapest, Madrid and Sofia, this was already the sixth opportunity for me to advance my topic of preference. The presentation is available online.

IFRS convergence & consistency

The documents and transcripts of the FEE Seminar on IFRS Convergence & Consistency are finally available. The seminar took place on 1 December 2005 in Brussels and I was asked to represent the views of financial analysts.

Spinning pensions

This excellent article in the Economist reminded me of an important paper that has been on my To Read List for way too much time without careful consideration. The paper evaluates DB pensions schemes from a strictly economic point of view, which has striking - and disagreeable, in the present environment - consequences. Much of the British pensions crisis can be attributed to changed views as a consequence of this.

What is the situation in Switzerland? In the UK, it is mostly actuaries who evaluate pension schemes, and the profession has a bit of a cartel in opinion making. This cartel has decided to adopt an economic view. In Switzerland, critically important rates (technical interest rate, the conversion rate) are defined legally and subject to political opinion making. This rates have been fixed in a period when interest rates were considerably higher, and to adapt them to economic reality now would create a lot of pain. But this is the nature of the ficticious contract of generations: the present generation fixes the terms of the contract for its own benefit.