Minor update on banking settlements
Just a few tidbits on the massive settlements for manipulating forex and Libor rates.
4/23 – Zero Hedge – It Just Cost Deutsche Bank $25,000 Per Employee To Keep Its Libor Manipulating Bankers Out Of Jail – …
April 2015
Scott London moved from prison to half way house
The Bureau of Prisons inmate locator shows that Scott London is currently under supervision of the Long Beach Residential Reentry Management office. His scheduled release date still shows at July 23, 2015.
I don’t know when he was released from the Lompoc United States Penitentiary. My last check on February 20 showed he was still in Lompoc. He reported to prison on July 19, 2014, so he is currently at about the nine-month point of his sentence. He has about three months until his scheduled release date.
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Background articles on overhaul of nonprofit accounting – #1
I’ll start listing the helpful articles providing background on the major changes to financial reporting of charities. Here’s the first articles I have seen:
- 4/22 – CliftonLarsonAllen – Proposed FASB Standards Foretell Multiple Changes for Nonprofits – Bit more detail than the typical introductory article.
- 4/22 – Journal of Accountancy – FASB proposes significant changes to not-for-profit reporting
Mentioned this previously:
- 4/22 – FASB press release – FASB proposes improvements to not-for-profit financial statements
(Cross post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)
FASB webinar on proposed changes to financial reporting for NPOs. Free. CPE credit.
FASB is offering a free webinar on the exposure draft to overhaul financial reporting for charities. Session will be good for 2 hours of CPE.
Webinar will be offered on May 12 at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
You can register at this page.
(Cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)
Deutsche Bank ponies up $2.5B for cooking Libor; industry wide settlements approaching $9B.
The dubious distinction of drawing the largest fine for manipulating Libor goes to Deutsche Bank. Their total tab is now $3.5B. That leaves UBS in a distant second place at $1.6B.
Check out two articles on April 22:
- Wall Street Journal – Deutsche Bank to Pay $2.5 Billion to Settle Libor Investigation With U.S., U.K. Authorities
- New York Times – Deutsche Bank to Pay $2.5 Billion Fine to Settle Rate-Rigging Case
Deutsche Bank will pay slightly over $2.5 billion to settle up for manipulating Libor, Eurbor, and Tibor (Tokyo interbank). Several specific Directors and VPs will be fired.
A subsidiary company in Britain will plead guilty to violating American criminal laws.
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FASB releases exposure draft on overhaul of NPO financial reporting
FASB has released the long-awaited revision to reporting by nonprofit organizations.
The FASB’s press release can be found here.
The document along with a link is: Proposed Accounting Standards Update- Not-for-Profit Entities (Topic 958) and Health Care Entities (Topic 954) – Presentation of Financial Statements of Not-for-Profit Entities.
(Cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)
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FASB releases exposure draft on overhaul of NPO financial reportingRead More »
More good stuff for auditors – 4-20
Big 4 firms moving into legal work, how state based regulation is slowing the profession’s responsiveness to change, and tax situations when you should refer a client to an attorney.
4/13 – Journal of Accountancy – 10 situations when a CPA should call “timeout” – When a client’s situation starts getting dicey, a CPA needs to call a timeout so the client can retain legal counsel. A list of 10 situations in the article doesn’t just apply to CPAs preparing individual tax returns. Some of them apply to auditors.
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5 million views of a rap video on economics? Yeah. 5 million. On economics.
Over 5.1M views of the first video in the series and just a few more views to cross the 3M point for the second. Check them out for entertaining, creative ways of explaining the views of Hayek and Keynes. Great contrast between the two.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk]
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOc]
Previously mentioned these videos here: …
5 million views of a rap video on economics? Yeah. 5 million. On economics.Read More »
More good stuff on banking fiascos – 4-14
Plan on how the banks will get out of the suits from soldiers. Also France tells HSBC to post a billion euro bond. Like they’re gonna’ grab a passport and book a flight to Argentina.
4/6 – Alison Frankel at Reuters – How Western banks hope to shake ex-U.S. soldiers’ Iran terror suit – Previously mentioned lawsuit by a number of US soldiers who were wounded by IEDs in Iraq. They allege the banks were providing the banking services used in turn to fund the terrorists who in turn wounded them.
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One fresh idea for fresh thinking on your audits: A blank sheet of paper
Checklists are great tools to help get audits done. They can be superb reminders of something you forgot or hadn’t thought about. They can also be a constraint on actual thinking, leading us into cookie-cutter audits.
My friend Charles Hall, writing at CPA-Scribo, suggests How to Overcome Cookie-Cutter Audits.
The idea is to start with a blank sheet of paper and ask some questions about the audit. Ponder what has changed in the economy, the accounting & audit rules, what problems might be encountered, and what work from the prior audit isn’t needed anymore.
This might get you out of the mental rut of doing things the same as every other audit and avoid the inefficiencies of hanging out with SALY all the time.
Here are his ideas for questions to ponder: …
One fresh idea for fresh thinking on your audits: A blank sheet of paperRead More »
Deutsche Bank in final negotiations for their Libor manipulation. If they settle at $1.5B, it would bring cumulative Libor fines to $7.6B.
Leaks to Dealbook suggest Deutsche Bank could have a settlement in May with DoJ, NY DFS, CFTC and Financial Conduct Authority in London. Amount of settlement is looking to be over $1.5B and involve a guilty plea to a criminal charge by a British sub of the bank.
Report is Deutsche Bank Nears Plea Deal Over Libor Manipulation.
Several comments in the article refer to ‘discounts’ given to the first-to-settle, which was UBS. Also comments that the last to settle pays a premium.
I’ve started tracking the Libor and Forex settlements in a spreadsheet. There are too many banks dealing with too many regulators on too many issues to keep everything straight in my little brain. Good infographic on settlements from WSJ here.
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ASU 15-03 – Debt issue costs will be moving to the other side of the balance sheet
Debt issue costs will soon need to be classified as a reduction in long-term debt instead of a deferred charge on the asset side of the balance sheet.
This change will be required by FASB’s ASU 2015-03, Interest—Imputation of Interest (Subtopic 835-30): Simplifying the Presentation of Debt Issuance Costs.
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ASU 15-03 – Debt issue costs will be moving to the other side of the balance sheetRead More »
Bank fiascos – slow progress on changing cultures to prevent the next fiasco
Change in massive organizations is slow. Here are a few articles on the speed of compliance to prevent future fiascos.
4/1 – Wall Street Journal – HSBC Monitor Says Bank’s Compliance Progress Too Slow and 4/1 – Deal Book at NY Times – HSBC Is Deemed Slow to Carry Out Changes – Quarterly report from the monitor on the 2012 DPA says he thinks the bank is not making enough progress on improving the anti-money laundering program. HSBC is now in year three of a five-year DPA.
On the other hand, progress takes time…
4/2 – This is Money at Daily Mail – Senior HSBC executive privately admits another major regulatory breach is ‘cast-iron certainty’, according to reports – This report got lots of coverage. I think it was reported elsewhere earlier than this article.
A senior compliance officer reportedly said that there is a high probability of another major regulatory violation at some point in the future. Several commenters and one headline I saw spun this as meaning the bank intends to break the law again.
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Bank fiascos – slow progress on changing cultures to prevent the next fiascoRead More »
In other April 1st news…
You can find my two posts for April 1 at my other blog, Outrun Change:
Democracy and innovation will trump totalitarianism and lack of freedom. Of course, it helps to have cloaked starships that fire photon torpedoes at warp speed hitting their targets hundreds of thousands of kilometers away go up against death stars that manually target lasers using visual observation.
News reports you may have missed on history books you may have read
Some books keep getting filed in the fiction section instead of the history section where they belong. Here are some news reports on a few of those books. Historian J.R.R. Tolkien gets good coverage.
Remember, it is April 1st.