Multimedia Presentation Recorded 10 May 2011
What Do Financial Reports Really Report?
Overview
This Challenging Industry Norms panel addresses the current state of global financial reporting, including whether investors are getting honest information and what can be done to reduce the complexity of financial statements and make them more useful. The panelists also discuss the impact of the convergence of global reporting standards and which accounting areas represent the biggest ethical challenges.
What Do Financial Reports Really Report? (audio)
About the Speaker(s)
Karl Debenham is a director within the global analytics and valuation team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research, where he is responsible for valuation methodology and comparative accounting. Previously, he served as a German country specialist and worked for Merrill Lynch. Mr. Debenham has been consistently ranked in the regular Institutional Investor surveys for accounting and valuation. He holds a first class degree in mathematics and a master's degree in management from Imperial College, London.
Martyn Jones is a national audit technical partner at Deloitte LLP and chair of Deloitte's corporate governance services group. Previously, he was chair of the Centre for Business at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). Mr. Jones is a member of the Confederation of British Industry's companies committee, the DTTL global audit technical advisory board, and the ICAEW council and its technical strategy board. He is also chairman of the ethics standards group of the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies and the ethics standards committee of ICAEW.
Ian Mackintosh is incoming vice chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board. Previously, he was chairman of the U.K. Accounting Standards Board and manager, financial management, for South Asia at the World Bank. Mr. Mackintosh has also worked as chief accountant for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and as a partner at Coopers and Lybrand. He has been actively involved in setting accounting standards and served as chairman of the Australian Public Sector Accounting Standards Board and as deputy chairman of the Australian Accounting Standards Board. Mr. Mackintosh is a fellow and an adjunct professor at the University of Canberra.
Jon Moulton is chairman of Better Capital. Previously, he was managing partner of Alchemy, a U.K.-based private equity firm that focused on dealing with troubled companies and had a European special opportunities fund investing principally in distressed debt. Mr. Moulton has also worked with Citicorp Venture Capital, Permira, and Apax. He is an active angel investor, a chartered accountant, and a fellow of the Institute for Turnaround Professionals. Mr. Moulton is also non-executive chairman of FinnCap and has recently been appointed a member of the advisory board for the U.K. Regional Growth Fund.