Who should audit green reporting?

There’s a green buzz in the air again and even though the debate is somewhat fledgling, it already seems like much has changed. Where before the expectation was that green individuals would pressure companies to change, it appears to me that the reverse is beginning to take hold.

Uncertainty around the economy, house prices and job security has kicked the ball firmly back into the corporate court.

As one of the highest profile accountants in the sustainability debate told me this week, these factors – and, perhaps most importantly, a lack of government leadership and clarity on the issue - has already caused a consumer greenlash.

So it begas the question: Will companies respond?

How to keep the regulators away

'Auditors located farther away from the SEC's 11 regional offices are less independent from their clients, because they feel less likely to get caught and punished for misdeeds, according CFO.com.

The findings apply particularly to non-Big Four audit firms, 'which tend to have less consistency in their audit quality', according to the study by three academics of more than 8,000 enforcement releases from 2004 to this year.

It couldn't happen here, could it?

Dispatches from Instituteland

I thought I'd kick off an occasional series of posts rounding up what's going on at the accountancy institutes. Who knows, if it gets enough interest we may even turn it into a separate blog. (Does that sound as unlikely as it now reads? If nothing else it will confirm the suspicions of Accountancy Age news editor Alex Hawkes who accuses me of being obsessed with these matters.)

Anyway in this inaugural post: ACCA and AAT bury past rows, ICAEW ups member communication spending and is rapped by its auditor and those CIPFA council results are in. And in today's moan: why don't accountancy institutes better publicise their accounts?

PwC's diverse graduate intake

Looking at the backgrounds of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ latest graduate intake is both revealing and encouraging, demonstrating – hopefully - the diverse direction in which the profession is heading.

Personal finance advice, the FD way

My recent post on one finance director’s domestic money management skills has elicited a number of off-blog responses.

You might recall that after his wife was told by Citibank that her credit card would not be replaced after it expired because she was, inter alia, no longer ‘eligible for credit from Citi Cards', he wrote that it was she who was in fact no longer prepared to enter into a financial business arrangement with the bank.

Among a number of reasons given was its ‘flawed’ business plan, ‘wildly optimistic’ valuation of sub prime exposure and ‘evidence of reckless and uninformed use of shareholder’s funds’.

The letter demanded the refund of his wife’s £4 credit balance.

Well, the debate has moved on.

Debate debate debated

I sense the debate around the quality of research that the profession is producing will only intensify. ICAS chief executive Anton Colella has picked up on it in one of his first blog posts, a point further developed by Dennis Howlett.

The latest round of discussion about the extent to which current research contributes to the greater good and / or advancement of meaningful debate was kicked off at a recent ICAS event, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the landmark institute report Making Corporate Reports Valuable.

I wrote it up as a news story on AccountancyAge.com so I won't repeat everything. But some of the comments made at the event and since will, I believe, colour this issue for months to come.

Another chief executive blogs

Congratulations to Anton Colella. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland chief executive has launched a blog. In doing so, he is following in the footsteps of his ICAEW equivalent Michael Izza. Arguably they, and BDO chairman Jeremy Newman, are the three highest profile and most senior accountancy bloggers. Will others join them?

Europe gets it wrong on bureaucracy

Poor old FEE. The European accountancy body doesn't get an awful lot of attention so it would have been hoping that some of the 500 or so journalists who were sent its latest press release yesterday would have picked up on it - especially as it was on the comparatively juicy subject of European Commission plans 'to reduce excessive and useless administrative burdens'.

What's that phrase about the best laid plans? As the release clogged up the inboxes of of Europe's finest business journalists (and Accountancy Age) by landing no fewer than six times, the sense of rising irritation was palpable.

'Is this the way Europe´s Accountants want to lecture the EU Commission to be less bureaucratic and more efficient - by sending their message -I dont know how many times?' asked one.

Another wrote: 'This message was sent to me six times, which is at least five too many.'

Ouch. Hopefully in this case there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Smoke and mergers

Today’s restructuring by Ernst & Young might be more interesting than it is significant. The firm is following in the footsteps of KPMG and Deloitte in ‘merging’ some of it practices though in scale it may take gold.

It proposes integrating 87 national practices in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa into a single unit. It is undertaking a similar exercise in the Far East. And having already unified the Americas in 2006, it is effectively bringing what were 131 business down to three.

Risk and reward, of course, are the twin drivers here. But, in truth, it is because of unresolved issues around risk and reward that mean this restructuring is more about words than it is about action.

Today Programme gets down to business

I didn't want to blog on this straight away, but hasn't the Today Programme improved since Evan Davis joined at the beginning of the month? The celebration of ignorance when it comes to business matters has eased and interviews on the credit crunch, markets and economics are insightful rather than point-scoring.

Yes, there's still too much focus on issues that directly impact the audience as consumers. This morning saw focuses on mortgages and an interview with Tesco's Sir Terry, for instance. (In political terms in would be like the programme only covering Westminster either side of a general election.) 

Yet the landmark 810 interview featured a banking analyst and a broker.

All in all it's so much better.