July 2012

Japanese regulators slightly criticize Olympus auditors then say the corrective action plan they require wouldn’t have found the fraud anyway

Leave a Comment / Audits, Fraud / By

Reuters reports that the Japanese regulator, Financial Service Agency, criticized KPMG and Ernst & Young for their audits of Olympus. Then they partially retracted their criticism.

The Reuters article, Japan regulator raps KPMG, Ernst & Young for Olympus work, says the two firms

…lacked operational management systems to ensure proper auditing that would spot and flag dubious transactions.

The regulators didn’t find any “intentional acts of grave negligence” according to the article.

I guess that means they should have had the foresight to develop some unidentified management system that would have identified the fraud.

The two firms have to develop a business improvement plan and report on their progress every six months.

An official then essentially retracted the criticism. Check out this comment:

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The picture is starting to emerge on the severity of LIBOR scandal

Leave a Comment / Accounting / By

The Economist has a very depressing article that describes the range and depth of the LIBOR disaster: The rotten heart of finance.  If you are following LIBOR scandal, you will really want to read this article. Be forewarned it makes for sad reading.

There are two different ways LIBOR rates have been manipulated.

First is a longer running and less severe manipulation. For number of years, at least since 2008, perhaps as long ago as 2005, and perhaps even earlier, the article says traders inside the banks have been moving the rate a little bit. Second is a larger amount of movement for a shorter period of time. This took place during the financial crisis of 2008 in order to understate borrowing costs.

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Who suffers from playing games with LIBOR?

5 Comments / Accounting / By

Earlier post discussed the blooming scandal over LIBOR rates.

Short version – Barclays has admitted it underreported borrowing costs which in turn affected the LIBOR rate, which is the base for calculating the interest rate on many loans.

The populist-type comments I’ve seen so far suggest that consumers are being ripped off. 

I don’t think so. Consumers aren’t the ones who suffer.  Here’s why:

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Might be time to start paying attention to the LIBOR scandal

1 Comment / Accounting / By

The fiasco over calculating LIBOR is a bit complicated, but it might be time to start paying attention.

The story is manipulation of LIBOR, a key interest-rate benchmark. Barclays Bank is one of the biggest banks in England. During the economic crisis in 2008, Barclays was underreporting their borrowing costs, which in turn artificially pulled down LIBOR.

So what?

This is a big deal because of the way LIBOR is calculated and how it is used.

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Try a new thing three times before you decide whether you like it

Leave a Comment / Other stuff / By

Try a thing you haven’t done three times.

Once, to get over the fear of doing it.

Twice, to learn how to do it.

And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not. 

Multiple internet sites attribute this to Virgil Thomson, American composer.

I’ve been pondering that quote over the last week or so. Lots of wisdom there. Doesn’t apply to everything, but it has lots of value for many situations, especially when dealing with radical change.

(cross-post from my other blog, Outrun Change.)