That’s the conclusion from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in a report they just released, which I can’t find online.
The analysts there calculated that the big bank and brokerage firms made $152B in profits from 2001 through 2010 (please no comments on the century and decade actually starting in 2000).
Fine and civil settlements paid by 43 banks …
Those big banking fiascos just won’t go away. Ripple effects keep showing up.
Here are two ripples that I noticed just yesterday from the money laundering mess, one for Bank of Tokyo and another with BNP.
11/18 – Wall Street Journal – Bank of Tokyo to Pay $315 Million to N.Y. Regulator – …
Ripple effects from banking fiascos – 1 Read More »
Your PTIN needs to be renewed for 2015. You need to get that done by 12-31. Without renewal, you can’t file a tax return electronically. Might not be an issue for a while into the new year, so maybe you could blow it off for a few months. Would be better to get it done now.
Just renewed mine today. Took about 10 minutes from start to end.
You can get started here.
Remember to renew your PTIN by 12/31 Read More »
Just a few more tidbits from the forex settlements announced yesterday.
Some more ideas from the WSJ coverage in their article, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Take Brunt of Currencies Settlement.
Three agencies are still investigating: The Federal Reserve, Department of Justice, and NY Department of Financial Services. DoJ and DFS will probably have the big fines and sanctions.
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A few updates on the Forex settlement Read More »
Three major regulators announced settlements with six banks for their now admitted manipulation of foreign exchange rates. At least two regulators (Department of Justice and NY Department of Financial Services) still have investigations open. One bank, Barclays, withdrew from the settlement.
The scheme ran for six years, starting after the fall 2007 meltdown and running until a year after the Libor settlements were underway.
Here is my recap of the fines by bank with calculation of the annualized cost, all amounts in U.S. dollars: …
May not be many people interested at the moment in knowing release dates for Scott London and Bryan Shaw as they continue to serve their time in federal pen. My blog continues to get a small stream of referrals from search results, so there is some teeny tiny bit of interest.
That prompted me to check the status of the two golf buddies who are serving time for insider trading.
Where are they now?
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Insider trading case – now we can watch the release datesRead More »
Insider trading case – now we can watch the release dates Read More »
A few articles of interest to auditors. Uh oh – perhaps IFRS isn’t completely dead. A couple of ideas on social media.
11/6 – Wall Street Journal – New SEC Chief Accountant Weighing Switch to Global Accounting Rules – …
More good stuff for auditors – 11/10 Read More »
Might be time to mention again how my writing is organized.
The basic idea is that blogs need to have a narrow focus in terms of topics or issues. Then the blog will gather an audience of people with that interest. Cover too many topics and everyone will lose interest.
That means I have split up the core of my writing into three blogs, each designed to appeal to a different audience. People interested in one of those areas may not be interested in the other topics, so I assign my posts to the blog that will have readers who will be more interested in that discussion. The main blogs are:
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Looks like it is really hard to prove individual culpability for conspiracy when a banker’s employer was aiding tax evasion. (I don’t use the word alleged in a sentence saying a bank committed a crime because UBS has already ‘fessed up and paid a $780,000,000 fine.)
11/4 – Wall Street journal – Acquittal in UBS Case Sets Back Tax Probe – A senior executive of UBS was on trial for allegedly helping Americans evade income taxes. The feds alleged that the banker ran a conspiracy to launder money and evade taxes, with said conspiracy involving cloak and dagger techniques to hide from authorities that the bank was knowingly and intentionally laundering money for its clients.
Didn’t turn out well for those who want to see a new federal penitentiary built to hold all the bankers who belong in jail.
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Anyone else having trouble keeping track of the rumors on the forex settlement talks?
Previously discussed that a few too-big-to-fail/jail/manage banks might have fines in the range of $0.5 to $1.0 billion apiece. Looks like the rumors of settlement amounts were off a lot.
A few articles that leave me scratching my head: …
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to interview Sam Antar, previously CFO of crazy Eddie and currently convicted felon. There are several other posts from our discussion.
During our conversation he pointed out that audits are limited in terms of time and are limited in scope. An audit is not a forensic analysis.
He described our current methodology as designed to detect material unintentional errors.
(I would add to that something about looking for material intentional errors that are non collusive or are in the obvious places. Add your own paraphrase of our responsibilities to look for fraud.)
Those limits suggest to him that a better describe of what we do would be: …
What’s the better description – “Audit” or Limited Review of Financial StatementsRead More »
What’s the better description – “Audit” or Limited Review of Financial Statements Read More »
Previously mentioned the big banks are under investigation for allegedly manipulating forex: Next banking fiasco? Manipulating foreign exchange rates? Those are the rates used to trade currencies. In addition to admitting manipulation of Libor, many banks now stand accused of manipulating forex.
Just two updates..
10/30 – Wall Street Journal – Big Banks Brace for Penalties in Probes – Tons of leaks feed the story of the typical cast of big banks being in negotiations to settle allegations of their manipulating foreign exchange rates, or forex. Big news to me is the banks are all trying to settle at the same time with all of the regulators.
(If one company reaching a simultaneous agreement with every regulator is called a global settlement, then if every company in the industry reaches an agreement with all regulators on the same day, would that be called a global global settlement? Universal global settlement?)
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Another thing you may enjoy about SSARS 21 is the slim size.
The full document is 157 pages long, but of that the front matter is 6 pages and the contents listing takes up 7 pages.
Section 60, General Principles, is 18 pages long including 2 pages of exhibits. So that is 16 pages of text. …
Page count for SSARS 21 Read More »
I just noticed there are some new risk alerts out from the AICPA that you can use to get ready for your year-end work.
Check out: …
New risk alerts for 2014/2015 are available Read More »
The accountant’s report for a review engagement has been revised by SSARS 21. Here is an example of the standard report and then a modification of the standard report.
Copy and paste at your risk.
Illustrative comparative review report
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Sample accountant’s review report for SSARS 21 Read More »