More on KPMG Australia, or: Disastergate!

Let’s check in again on the fast-moving KPMG Australia scandal, as handily summed up here: Some recent developments, as reported by the Australia Financial Review: A “KPMG Australia scandal timeline” on one website tracks new developments almost daily over recent months. Of course, the events continue to trigger a flood of commentary, for instance: It’s…

Modernizing requirements for public companies; or, slash away!

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) recently published a consultation paper “seeking stakeholder input on potential ways to modernize securities legislation for public companies,” open for a 120-day comment period. Here’s how it sets out one item relevant to the subject matter of this blog. A reminder that in Canada, “venture issuers” generally refers to smaller public…

The IFRS Accountant (there’s really only one!)

I came across a Substack page maintained by The IFRS Accountant… Do I mean an IFRS Accountant, you ask? Well no, in the sense that the author of the blog (who appears to be British) refers to themselves in the third person as such, otherwise maintaining anonymity other than to tell us: “After 35+ years…

More on management-defined performance measure: it was all in private!

Let’s return to the IFRS 18 concept of management-defined performance measures. You’ll recall that the new standard defines such a measure as ‘a subtotal of income and expenses that an entity uses in public communications outside financial statements; to communicate to users of financial statements management’s view of an aspect of the financial performance of…

The truth, the whole truth, and some yap, yap, yap…

Here are some extracts from the keynote speech at the recent IFRS Foundation conference, by Saker Nusseibeh, CEO of Federated Hermes Limited He returns to the theme at the end: But when I came across the above, I couldn’t help thinking about the following portion of Louis CK’s recent stand-up special Ridiculous (on Netflix): Well,…

More on management-defined performance measures: what if…?

Let’s return to the IFRS 18 concept of management-defined performance measures. You’ll recall that the new standard defines such a measure as ‘a subtotal of income and expenses that an entity uses in public communications outside financial statements; to communicate to users of financial statements management’s view of an aspect of the financial performance of…

Deficiencies in fair value disclosures, or: reload the matrix!

As part of its activities, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) organizes a forum of enforcers from 38 different European jurisdictions, all of whom carry out monitoring and review programs similar to those carried out here by the Canadian Securities Administrators. ESMA a while ago published some extracts from its confidential database of enforcement…

Firm down, down under

Reuters reported the following on June 5: It had previously been reported that the aforementioned firm Dexus said it wouldn’t allow KPMG Australia’s chief operating officer to “be the signing partner – the registered auditor who attests that a company’s financial results reflect a true and fair view of its financial performance – for its…

Two beasts, no beauty

Hub Group, Inc. reported the following in February of this year: A few months later, the contagion spread further: The “national shareholder rights law firm” Hagens Berman got right on it: This triggered some fairly predictable commentary, for instance: Well, yes. One notes though that as the Hub Group story continued to unfold, the market…

Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time on this blog, the Pope!

Let’s return to our coverage of Pope Leo I’m joking – no disrespect, but the Holy Father and his predecessors haven’t typically been within this blog’s zone of interest. But the recent encyclical letter on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence touches on a few areas we’ve covered in the past.…