Blog Entries tagged 'risk'

Pessimism Continues to Grip Executive Suites, Wall Street

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:00:00 +0100

The doom and gloomers are growing in numbers.

On a day when the ADP employment report for May showed slower job growth than expected and the ISM Manufacturing Index plummeted in May, at least two new reports were released indicating the business community and investors are becoming increasingly nervous about the future.

A global survey of 800 institutional investors and corporate executives found that 86 percent believe there are significant opportunities for growth in fin [...]

Pension funded status slips

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100

The funded status of pension funds slipped for the first time in nine months.

The funded status of the typical U.S. corporate pension plan in May fell 2.3 percentage points to 86.9 percent, according to monthly statistics published by BNY Mellon Asset Management. This also erased nearly half of the gains achieved since the beginning of the year.

"The sudden reversal in May reflected the impact of lower Treasury yields as investor concern grew regarding the [...]

Fees to auditors rose slightly in 2009: Study

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Mon, 23 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100

After three consecutive years of decline, audit fees as a percentage of revenue of Independent Auditors increased slightly in 2009, points out a new comprehensive study for Audit Analytics.

However, the research firm says that as with non-audit fees, the uptick is due to a decrease in revenues instead of an increase in fees. It stresses the fees declined despite the extra work demanded of independent auditors during the same period when more and more companies were required to [...]

The new Internet bubble: Poised to burst?

annearf@aol.com — Tue, 17 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Are we in a new Internet bubble? And will it burst, like the last one?

More to the point, when will it burst?

Consider the fact that LinkedIn just raised its IPO pricing by 30 percent.

And consider recent remarks by Alan Patricof of Greycroft Partners characterizing the current rush to invest in fledgling web companies as evidence of "a period of irrational exuberance," according to Reuters . As a pioneer in the area of web and technology investing, he [...]

Financial restatements rose 7.6 percent in 2010: Study

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Mon, 16 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100

The number of financial restatements rose in 2010, after three years of decline, according to a new study from Audit Analytics. The new uptick was driven by non-accelerated filers.

In addition, although the quantity increased slightly, the severity of the restatements remained low, AA stresses.

Altogether, there were 735 restatements, up more 7.6 percent from 683 the prior year. However, 2010 saw the fewest revisions since 2002.

Restatements peaked with 1795 in 2006 [...]

Companies want employees healthy, wealthy and wise

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Sun, 15 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100

A growing number of companies think it is very important that their employees be healthy and plan to do something about this.

A new study from Towers Watson found that three out of four companies said workforce health and promoting health and well-being will be more of a priority this year and next. In addition, 87 percent said it will be a higher priority over the next two to four years.

Of course, actions speak louder than words. This said, some47 percent of those who r [...]

Employees more committed to 401(k) plans

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Tue, 10 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Employees are once again ramping up their commitment to their 401(k) plans.

Just 2.4 percent of Defined Contribution plan participants stopped contributing in 2010, compared with 3.4 percent of participants in 2009, according to the ICI's latest quarterly study.

At the same time, DC plan withdrawal activity in 2010 was in line with the prior year's activity; participants generally did not tap their accounts. Only 3.5 percent of DC plan participants took withdrawals d [...]

First quarter earnings beat forecasts by 50 percent

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Mon, 09 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100

It's official: The first quarter was a huge pleasant surprise.

In a report fired off to clients, Deutsche Bank figures with 87 percent of the S&P 500 companies having reported, earnings for the March three-month period surged 18 percent year-over-year. This far exceeded the 12 percent expectation at the beginning of the quarter.

It was also the ninth consecutive quarter of sequential earnings growth.

Earnings were driven by cyclical sectors such as Materials [...]

Pension plans move closer to fully funded

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Thu, 05 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Corporate pension funds continue to become flusher thanks to the surging stock market.

The funded status of the typical U.S. corporate pension plan in April rose 0.7 percentage points to 89.2 percent, the eighth consecutive month of improvement, according to monthly statistics published by BNY Mellon Asset Management.

The funding ratio for the typical corporate plan has improved 4.9 percentage points since the beginning of the year.

BNY Mellon attributes this su [...]

Texas still best place to do business

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Wed, 04 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100

For the seventh year in a row, CEOs rate Texas as the number one state in which to do business and California as the worst.

Chief Executive magazine's annual "Best & Worst States" survey once again singled out North Carolina as the second best state to do business.

"A handful of states have made business-friendly policies a priority," says J.P. Donlon, Editor-in-Chief of Chief Executive magazine and ChiefExecutive.net. "These forward-thinking states a [...]

Top 10 business threats facing companies today

annearf@aol.com — Tue, 03 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100

What's the biggest business risk, according to managers around the world?

It's the economy, stupid.

According to the latest survey ranking top risks facing business from Aon , the greatest threat is from the economic slowdown. The survey questioned about 1,000 business professionals from 58 countries.

About 67 percent of respondents reported loss of income over the last 12 months.

Also high on the list were regulatory/legislative changes (2), [...]

"Risk-intelligent" boards should question assumptions, analyze strategy

annearf@aol.com — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100

So how exactly should boards go about the business of risk management?

The answer: methodically and carefully, with a defined framework for structuring their activities, always informed by the need to align risk assessment to strategy.

Those are the observations of two Deloitte corporate governance experts, Henry Ristuccia, partner and co-leader of governance and risk management services, and Maureen Errity, director of the Deloitte Center for Corporate Governance.

[...]

SEC clears Zale...again

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100

The Securities and Exchange Commission told Zale it has completed its investigation of the company and does not intend to recommend any enforcement action.

"We are glad to share with our investors and employees that this matter is now behind us as we continue to focus on returning our business to profitability," said Theo Killion, Chief Executive Officer of the jewelry retailer, in a statement.

The SEC launched the investigation after the company restated it [...]

Default rate way down this year

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100

In the past week alone, two companies completed distressed exchange offers--US-based Liz Claiborne and Canada-based Cinram International.

This brings the total number of corporate defaults so far this year to six, including four based in the US, according to Standard & Poor's.

Don't despair. The overall default trend is way down from recent year.

Last year at this time, 30 global corporate issuers had already defaulted. Of that total, 21 were US-based i [...]

CFOs focused on top line growth

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100

It's all about revenues.

Chief financial officers surveyed by Deloitte said nearly half of their companies' strategic focus is on revenue growth. This far exceeds their 30 percent focus on cost reduction.

And this emphasis on sales does not bode well for future job growth. Year-over-year domestic hiring growth projections for the first quarter of 2011 remained at a low 1.8 percent, similar to projections from the previous three quarters, according to the newly rele [...]

Bernanke calls for stricter financial clearinghouse regulation

annearf@aol.com — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Should there be more stringent risk requirements for financial clearinghouses responsible for payments, securities, and derivatives transactions?

According to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the answer is, most definitely yes.

In a recent speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Financial Markets conference, Bernanke called for stricter rules governing such clearinghouses, citing their importance as the "plumbing" of the financial system. Ha [...]

More companies say bad ethics cost them business

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Potential ethical issues are playing a major role among US companies that conduct business overseas.

According to a new survey, the number of companies claiming to have lost business due to competitors acting unethically has surged to 40 percent from just 10 percent as recently as 2009.

In addition, more than 55 percent of companies are delaying or avoiding working with global business partners due to concerns about corruption liability in foreign markets.

These are am [...]

Costly malicious data breaches on the rise

annearf@aol.com — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Malicious or criminal attacks on data are on the rise--and so are their costs.

Those are some of the findings of the 2010 US Cost of a Data Breach study from the Ponemon Institute. The benchmark study looked at the experiences of 51 US companies in 15 industry sectors; it's the sixth annual such survey done by Ponemon.

According to Ponemon, for the first time, malicious or criminal attacks are the most expensive cause of data breaches. Some 31 percent of all cases i [...]

Do "entrepreneurial" public companies create more jobs?

annearf@aol.com — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

We've heard a lot about how high-growth startups generate more jobs than other small businesses. Now there's evidence so-called entrepreneurial public companies create more employment than other firms of the same size.

The findings are from research by Joel Shulman, an associate professor at Babson College who also runs a newly created mutual fund called EntrepreneurShares Mutual Fund . It invests in 400 companies defined as entrepreneurial according to 15 core factors, [...]

Japan's nuclear disaster puts new spotlight on clean tech

annearf@aol.com — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

The devastating earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear-power disaster in Japan are forcing a new look at the efficacy and safety of nuclear energy. Not so long ago, the Obama administration committed to boosting nuclear power. Now countries like Germany are saying they're reassessing their policies.

The gravity of these issues lends a particular urgency to new findings about venture capital investment in clean technology, as well as the state of the clean energy industry.