Disruption In Financial Reporting

Since the global financial crisis of 2007–8, new laws and regulations have been introduced with the aim of improving the transparency in financial reporting. Despite the dramatically increased flow of information to shareholders and the public, this information flow has not always been meaningful or useful. Often it seems that it is not possible to see the wood for the trees. Financial scalds continue, as Wirecard, NMC Health, Patisserie Valerie, going back to Carillion (and many more) demonstrate. Financial and corporate reporting have never been so fraught with difficulties as companies fail to give guidance about the future in an increasingly uncertain world aided and abetted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This concise book argues that the changes have simply masked an increase in the use of corporate PR, impression management, bullet points, glossy images, and other simulacra which allow poor performance to be masked by misleading information presented in glib boilerplate texts, images, and tables. The tone of the narrative sections in annual reports is often misleading. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with insiders and experts, this book charts what has gone wrong with financial reporting and offers a range of solutions to improve information to both investors and the public. This provides a framework for a new era of forward-looking corporate reporting and guidance based on often conflicting multiple corporate goals. The book also examines and contrasts the latest thinking by the regularity authorities. Providing a compelling exploration of the industry’s failings and present difficulties, and the impact of future disruption, this timely, thought-provoking book will be of great interest to students, researchers, and professionals as well as policy makers in accounting, financial reporting, corporate reporting, financial statement analysis, and governance.

Since the global financial crisis of 2007–8, new laws and regulations have been introduced with the aim of improving the transparency in financial reporting. Despite the dramatically increased flow of information to shareholders and the public, this information flow has not always been meaningful or useful. Often it seems that it is not possible to see the wood for the trees. Financial scalds continue, as Wirecard, NMC Health, Patisserie Valerie, going back to Carillion (and many more) demonstrate. Financial and corporate reporting have never been so fraught with difficulties as companies fail to give guidance about the future in an increasingly uncertain world aided and abetted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This concise book argues that the changes have simply masked an increase in the use of corporate PR, impression management, bullet points, glossy images, and other simulacra which allow poor performance to be masked by misleading information presented in glib boilerplate texts, images, and tables. The tone of the narrative sections in annual reports is often misleading. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with insiders and experts, this book charts what has gone wrong with financial reporting and offers a range of solutions to improve information to both investors and the public. This provides a framework for a new era of forward-looking corporate reporting and guidance based on often conflicting multiple corporate goals. The book also examines and contrasts the latest thinking by the regularity authorities. Providing a compelling exploration of the industry’s failings and present difficulties, and the impact of future disruption, this timely, thought-provoking book will be of great interest to students, researchers, and professionals as well as policy makers in accounting, financial reporting, corporate reporting, financial statement analysis, and governance.

Focussing on the dominance of the Big Four auditing firms – PwC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG – this concise volume provides an authoritative critical assessment of the state and future of the audit market, currently the subject of much debate and the focus of significant government enquiries. Drawing on extensive research and a vast collection of evidence from interviews with insiders, experts and users, it explores the key issues of audit quality, independence, choice and the growing expectation gap. Just as disruptive technologies are overturning other established sectors, this book explores their impact on accounting, financial reporting and auditing. It questions whether the Big Four-dominated audit market is prepared not only for the inevitable disruption of new technologies, but also the challenges of negative public perceptions, cynicism about regulation and demands for greater transparency. In the context of increasing high-profile corporate failures, this book provides a compelling scrutiny of the industry’s failings and present difficulties, and the impact of future disruption. At this crucial time, it will be of great interest to students, researchers and professionals in accounting and auditing, as well as policy makers and regulators.

This book provides top-level advice about transforming financial services organizations --

This concise volume evaluates the cause and significance of recent corporate failures and financial scandals, and how they reflect on the fitness for purpose of the external auditors, financial reports, financial watchdogs, boards, directors and senior management. Failures like the disastrous collapse of Carillion, examined at length, have ultimately led to a crisis of confidence not only in the audit process but in the entire process of financial reporting. Revealing the shortcomings in audit quality, independence, choice and the growing expectation gap, Financial Failures and Scandals questions if the profession, its regulators or government watchdogs, are adequately prepared for the challenges of increasing regulation, public outcry and political scrutiny in the face of inevitable future financial failures. The fundamental structures of financial reporting, annual reports, boards of directors and senior management are often found to have failed. Tighter regulation and new requirements for reporting will inevitably result. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with insiders, users and experts, this unique book provides a compelling account of the profoundly disruptive impact of financial failures on corporate and financial accountability. Topical and readable, this book will be of great interest to students, researchers and professionals in accounting and auditing, as well as to policy makers and regulators.

"This book provides understanding and lessons learned in regard to all aspects of financial technology utilization and management in individual, organizational, and societal experiences. It examines the emergence of financial technology during the last decade. Including discussion on topics such as regulatory environments, technology infrastructures, public sector initiatives, and financial technology for the social sector"--

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.

Many people need help planning for retirement, saving, investing, and decumulating their assets, yet financial advice is often complex, potentially conflicted, and expensive. The advent of computerized financial advice offers huge promise to make accessible a more coherent approach to financial management, one that takes into account not only clients' financial assets but also human capital, home values, and retirement pensions. Robo-advisors, or automated on-line services that use computer algorithms to provide financial advice and manage customers' investment portfolios, have the potential to transform retirement systems and peoples' approach to retirement planning. This volume offers cutting-edge research and recommendations regarding the impact of financial technology, or FinTech, to disrupt retirement planning and retirement system design.

Strategies for any company to transform its sales and marketing efforts in a way that truly accelerates revenue growth Revenue Disruption delivers bold new strategies to transform corporate revenue performance and ignite outsized revenue growth. Today's predominant sales and marketing model is at best obsolete and at worst totally dysfunctional. This book offers a completely new operating methodology based on a sales and marketing approach that recognizes the global technological, cultural, and media changes that have forever transformed the process of buying and selling. The dysfunctional state of today's corporate revenue creation model results in trillions of dollars in lost growth opportunities. Revenue Disruption examines the problems of the current model and offers real-world solutions for fixing them. It lays out a detailed plan that businesspeople and companies can use to fundamentally transform their sales and marketing performance to win this century's revenue battle.