CFOs Put Away Their Crystal Balls

Fewer CFOs will be offering investors short-term guidance during this earnings season. The heavy fog that settled into the U.S. economy more than six months ago has made it harder for them to see how 2009 will shape up and gives them an opportunity to end, at least temporarily, the pressure to pr...

By Sarah Johnson • April 21, 2009

SEC Settlements Rise 16% in Q1

The Securities and Exchange Commission made 182 new settlements in the first three months of 2009, a 16% increase compared to the same period last year, according to NERA Economic Consulting.The SEC had made 123 settlements in the fourth quarter of 2008, during the waning weeks of Christopher Cox...

By Sarah Johnson • April 16, 2009

Leadership in Finance: Unibail-Rodamco’s Peter van Rossum

A lot has changed since Peter van Rossum last spoke with CFO Europe in November 2007. Then, the finance chief was busy ploughing through the integration of French commercial-property group Unibail and Dutch peer Rodamco Europe, confident that the enlarged group’s focus on cash flow would see it t...

By Tim Burke • April 15, 2009

Former Deputy to Head SEC’s Corporation Finance Division

Meredith B. Cross, a former Securities and Exchange Commission official, has been named the new director of the commission’s corporation finance division, the SEC announced late Monday. She fills a gap left when John White stepped down late last year as head of the division, which oversees annual...

By David Katz • April 14, 2009

SEC: Moving Deck Chairs on the Titanic?

Inside the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, about 1,750 employees are in the midst of a long, drawn-out version of musical chairs costing nearly $4 million.The SEC has been moving the staffers’ workspaces, going on the assumption that if people within the same d...

By Sarah Johnson • April 9, 2009

Some CFOs Are Ignoring the Credit Crunch

Some CFOs aren’t losing sleep over the credit crunch, at least not yet. For now, finance chiefs of start-up energy companies are more worried more about equity financing and rolling out new technology than they are about borrowing.Eventually, “we may have to cross the valley of death into commerc...

By Marie Leone • April 7, 2009

The Grass Is Always Greener

“Think of what’s happening in countries like Spain, Germany and Japan where they’re making real investments in renewable energy,” Barack Obama instructed Americans earlier this year. “They’re surging ahead of us, poised to take the lead in these new industries. This isn’t because they’re smarter ...

By Economist Staff • April 3, 2009

Substandard

“Bob took a bit of a beating, and we have a lot of sympathy.” That’s how a source within the International Accounting Standards Board describes the rough treatment suffered by Robert Herz, chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the American accounting standard-setter, at a congress...

By Jason Karaian and Marie Leone • April 2, 2009

Outward Bound

Few CIOs will be surprised to find their budgets slashed today. As Bill Floydd, CFO of IT group Logica UK, points out, finance chiefs are taking a much closer interest in their companies’ IT strategy during the downturn, pushing their CIOs “to deliver a savings plan and to do this quickly.” In fa...

By Tim Burke • April 2, 2009

Need for Speed

With all of the strain that companies’ physical supply chains are under (see “Breakdown”), it comes as unwelcome news that an important link in the financial supply chain—insurance—may also be nearing breaking point. Though no insurer has yet been laid as low as AIG, whose disastrous investments ...

By Jason Karaian • April 2, 2009

The Gauge of Innocence

In tough times, companies face plenty of honest challenges, and most managers and staffers rise to the occasion. But inevitably, as pressures multiply, some will cave in and demonstrate poor judgment, or worse. They may blur the lines on revenue recognition, tinker with stock options, abuse reser...

By S.L. Mintz • April 1, 2009

Staples CFO: Going Green Means Saving Green

Companies that have not done much work on “green” initiatives will likely get going now because of their declining business fortunes. So said John Mahoney, finance chief of Staples, at the CFO Green Conference yesterday in New York.Do sustainability efforts save money? The question of whether tha...

By David McCann • April 1, 2009

Stocks Down, Voices Raised

With gloomy prospects facing nearly every public company, shareholders are sure to be feistier than ever this proxy season. Once again, the center-stage issue will be executive compensation. “Shareholders want a cleanup in the compensation aisle,” quips Patrick McGurn, special counsel to proxy ad...

By Kate Plourd • April 1, 2009

A Tale of Two Markets

Even as they seek bailout dollars from Washington, financial-services firms shouldn’t expect any relief from their insurers. Premiums for directors’-and-officers’ (D&O) liability insurance are soaring, financial limits are contracting, and policy terms and conditions are tightening. The situa...

By Russ Banham • April 1, 2009

Commercial Real Estate’s Ballooning Threat

The next credit crunch will come in the commercial real estate business, where many heavily leveraged companies are experiencing a loss of tenants and lower rents due to the lousy economy. One potential trigger point could be looming balloon mortgage payments that are coming due, with unlucky tim...

By Stephen Taub • March 30, 2009

Insight Enterprises Hit with Investor Suits

Computer products reseller Insight Enterprises Inc., which recently disclosed that it was the target of its second Securities and Exchange Commission probe in two years, is being sued by shareholders.At least four law firms have announced the filing of class-action lawsuits in federal court for t...

By Stephen Taub • March 26, 2009

EU wants tighter control of rating agencies

Members of the European Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee earlier this week voted in favour of a proposal that would require credit rating agencies to register and be subject to scrutiny by regulators to see they were complying with governance rules.The proposal from Charlie Mc...

By European Voice Staff • March 26, 2009

Wave Bye-bye to Buybacks

Companies continued to scale down repurchases of their own shares – with the fourth-quarter drop-off in buybacks occurring at a particularly rapid rate.S&P 500 companies shelled out $48.1 billion to repurchase stock during the latest quarter, down 66 percent from $141.7 billion during in the ...

By Stephen Taub • March 26, 2009

Stanford Financial CFO Will Aid the Feds

Stanford Financial Group CFO James M. Davis — the number-two executive at the financial firm at the center of allegations that it is an $8-billion investment fraud — is reportedly cooperating with federal investigators.Previously, Davis had cited his Fifth-Amendment rights against self-incriminat...

By Stephen Taub and Roy Harris • March 24, 2009

Geithner, Bernanke Defend AIG Bailout

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday defended their handling of the AIG bailout while calling for Congress to grant new powers to take over failing firms.Both men, speaking before the House Financial Services Committee, defended the infusion of ...

By Roll Call Staff • March 24, 2009

Rumbling On

Barack Obama has endured a difficult few days. Anger rumbles on after the revelation that American International Group (AIG) paid millions in bonuses to employees at the unit that broke the giant insurer, which required a $173 billion bail-out. The Senate is poised this week to debate a “compensa...

By Economist Staff • March 23, 2009

A Test of Will

A few days ago Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, was asked to identify the biggest obstacle to economic recovery. That “we don’t have the political will,” he replied.Mr. Bernanke showed his own will on Wednesday March 18th, when the Fed’s policy panel said it would purchase $300 bill...

By Economist Staff • March 19, 2009

Proposed Labor-Union Law Roils CFOs

The proposed Employee Free Choice Act, also known as the Card Check bill, has set off the first of what could be a series of labor-versus-business brawls in the now Democrat-controlled Washington.While business-backed and union-supported lobbying groups attempt to sway lawmakers on the vices or v...

By Kate Plourd • March 19, 2009

From the Oracle’s Mouth: Its First Div

Against the grain of company after company slashing dividends, Oracle announced its first payout ever.The software giant will pay a 5-cent quarterly, for an annual rate of 20 cents, declaring that the dividend policy now will add a new dimension to the way it rewards investors – limited in the pa...

By Stephen Taub • March 18, 2009

First, Madoff. Now? His Accountant.

Federal prosecutors turned from Bernard Madoff — now in jail awaiting sentencing — and arrested his accountant on charges of aiding and abetting Madoff’s alleged $50 billion pyramid investment scheme.David G. Friehling, who surrendered this morning, was charged with six counts of securities fraud...

By Stephen Taub • March 18, 2009