The independent study by Hudson called Talent Tightrope: Managing the Workplace through the Downturn found that almost 74% of accounting and finance professionals say their stress has risen as a result of the GFC, 20% higher than the average.

In addition, 56% of accounting and finance professionals said they valued their jobs more than before the downturn, although half of all employees are seeking a new role.

The study found a slight discrepancy in perceived loyalty; 43% of employers think employees have become more loyal, while only 20% of employees report greater loyalty.

In fact, employers consistently viewed employee sentiment as being twice that as the figures showed in terms of job security, perceived stress levels, morale, or motivation.

“In every aspect of current workplace sentiment, whether job satisfaction, motivation, morale, perceived stress levels or job security employers are clearly unaware of their employees’ frame of mind,” said Mark Steyn, CEO Hudson A/NZ. “For example, nearly half (44%) of the 2,394 employees surveyed indicated that worker morale has plummeted. In contrast, only 26% of the 247 employers interviewed acknowledge that workplace morale has dropped.

Source: Andrea Lavigne

EYARC, which represents a $1.5 million investment for the firm, is a collaboration of faculty and professionals dedicated to helping the next generation of accounting professionals meet the fast-changing needs of the global financial markets. The first phase of IFRS curriculum was released in January of this year. The second phase of curriculum provides additional IFRS resources intended to supplement typical US university financial accounting coursework. EYARC’s curriculum is unique as it includes comprehensive and flexible materials that compare IFRS with US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), including a user guide, lecture notes, presentation slides, homework problems, illustrative disclosures, case studies and international spotlight features.

EYARC held its first national IFRS training session in Cleveland last week for more than 60 faculty attendees from across the country. Key speakers at the training included Ken Marshall, Americas IFRS Markets Leader at Ernst & Young LLP, EYARC faculty members Jana Raedy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Irene Wiecek, University of Toronto, who recently published an IFRS primer textbook; and Tim Eaton, Miami University, Ohio, as well as retired Ernst & Young LLP partners John Kiss, Nick Kissel, Peter Nurczynski and Bob Riley.

James Wahlen, Professor of Accounting and Chairman of the MBA Program at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University said, “The EYARC IFRS faculty training was an outstanding experience. Several accounting faculty and retired partners assembled a comprehensive and detailed set of materials that will help me and accounting faculty members all over the country incorporate an understanding of IFRS into our courses. This training is a great example of how practice and academia can partner for the benefit of our students, our teaching and research, and our profession.”

Judy Rayburn, Chair of the Accounting Department at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota said, “EYARC IFRS training was a great experience that saved me a lot of time and provided many resources that I will easily be able to assimilate into my classes. The training team was focused and fun, seasoned, and internationally knowledgeable.”

Jennifer Blouin, Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business said, “Making an effort to maximize pedagogical flexibility, EYARC offered faculty extensive training and materials useful for developing IFRS curriculum at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The class notes, cases, and high level spotlights on convergence issues created by EYARC’s team of academics and practice professionals will be invaluable as I incorporate IFRS into my syllabus.”

Currently, the US is the only industrialized country to not yet adopt IFRS or have a “date certain” for adoption. In the Americas, for example, Canada and South America have adoption dates ranging from 2011 to 2014. In November, the SEC issued a roadmap proposing the adoption of IFRS in the US beginning in 2014. This roadmap is currently open for comment before mandatory adoption is initiated.

“Given the roadmap issued by the SEC and the probability of mandatory adoption of IFRS in the US in the relatively near time frame, we believe it’s a matter of when — not if — schools will need to realign their educational programs to address IFRS learning,” said Ellen Glazerman, Ernst & Young LLP, Americas Director of University Relations. “Even though IFRS is not currently mandated in the US, most of our multinational clients report under IFRS in some capacity, therefore demanding that knowledge from our professionals and the new campus recruits that we hire. We, along with universities, have a shared responsibility in accounting education.”

Catherine Banks, EYARC Program Director added, “Students who have an understanding of IFRS will distinguish themselves in the hiring process and will likely have increased career and mobility opportunities. Learning IFRS requires students to build more critical-thinking skills to better understand the substance of transactions, which should make them better accountants.”

Source: PRNEWSWIRE

“The Philippines is in a better position to face this crisis because of fiscal reforms undertaken by the government in 2005-2006,” IMF Resident Representative Reza Baqir told The STAR last night.

“The impact on domestic financial markets of ongoing global financial stress would have been greater if these reforms had not been in place,” Baqir said. “These reforms also provided resources to the government to undertake measures to protect the poor from high food and fuel prices.”

As the local economy braced for the impact of the meltdown in the US market, the IMF official said the government would need more funds and that now is the best time for the government to push for more tax reforms.

Chief among these reforms, according to the IMF, was indexing tobacco and alcohol taxes to inflation in order to generate the revenues needed to finance poverty alleviation programs.

With elections approaching in 2010, the IMF said the window for legislative action would close soon.

Without the economic reforms, the IMF said the damage from the US market meltdown would have been bigger.

The IMF is the biggest supporter of the Arroyo administration’s strategy to undertake targeted and conditional cash transfer program to cushion the impact of the market turmoil and the surge in oil prices.

A reduction or scrapping of the VAT on oil and petroleum products –as pushed by some quarters –would have caused a dramatic erosion in government revenues at a time when public spending is needed more to stimulate the economy.

“The tax effort —tax collections in percent of GDP —remains a key barometer of Philippines’ fiscal health,” Baqir said.

Aside from further reducing Philippine vulnerability, Baqir said reforms would provide sustainable resources for needed spending on infrastructure and social sectors.

“Provision of such public goods is necessary for reducing poverty and raising growth prospects,” Baqir said.

Baqir said the tobacco tax level should be raised then indexed to inflation which, he said, would strengthen the tax effort and bring tobacco taxation in line with other countries.

Baqir said the IMF was also supporting the rationalization of fiscal incentives since it was shown that income tax holidays benefit mostly very profitable firms.

Baqir said measures being supported by the finance department that would replace tax holidays with reduced corporate income tax rate or a low tax on gross receipts, would provide stronger incentives to invest while increasing government revenues.

The IMF said the government should also improve the collection efficiency of Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs. At the BIR, reforms should cover taxpayer registration, arrears collection, and audits. The BOC also needs to craft and implement a comprehensive reform agenda.
Banks stable

Malacañang assured the public yesterday that there’s no reason to worry about bank closures despite the troubles being experienced by a number of large financial institutions in the US.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita emphasized at a briefing that the banking system is very stable and is capable of fending off external shocks.

Ermita said that insolvency should not be an issue among the local banks which have exposure in the troubled Lehman Brothers.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas deputy governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. noted that the country’s banks, particularly the commercial banks are well capitalized and are well protected from developments in the US.

Espenilla said that a survey of around 60 commercial and thrift banks conducted by the BSP showed that only a handful had accounts with Lehman Brothers.

Espenilla noted that it is the country’s biggest banks that had exposures in Lehman Brothers, three of which already made their disclosures to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Ermita said that six banks were affected but this would not be confirmed by Espenilla.

Espenilla pointed out that the exposure of the affected banks is far less than their capital bases so that even in a worst-case scenario, they would not be forced to shut down.

He said that the worst that could happen to the affected banks would be a failure to realize their projected incomes.

“It won’t result in negative incomes and we’re not expecting the solvency of the banks to be an issue,” Espenilla said.

“We believe that the banks will be able to hurdle this because of their huge capital base,” he added.

According to Espenilla, the lessons learned during the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 have buttressed the banking system from problems similar to what is happening in the US.

Since the 1997 crisis, the BSP has required higher capitalization for banks in order to protect the interests of their clients and the entire financial system as a whole.

Espenilla said that the affected banks could even recover part or whole of what they invested in Lehman Brothers now that financial institutions such as British bank Barclays Plc. have decided to buy parts of what used to be a formidable US firm.

Source: Des Ferriols