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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Oct 2012
At a recent Fellows dinner in Melbourne, veteran director John Ralph looked ahead at how economic conditions might change and what scenarios directors should plan for. Here is an edited extract of his speech.
In planning the strategy for your organisation, you will recognise the possibili...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Jul 2010
Belinda Gibson
explains how ASIC has been preparing to take over the supervision of Australia’s licensed financial markets.
Supervising financial markets
Later this year, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will assume responsibility for supervising Australia...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Jul 2010
Domini Stuart
reports on why aspects of the proposed new differential reporting regime may create headaches for some directors.
New accounting blues
Areas of concern for differential reporting include:
A “clarification” for special-purpose fi...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 May 2010
Tony Featherstone
reports on how problematic executive remuneration is becoming for directors.
The growing REM headache
The executive pay debate has focused mostly on the link between CEO pay and performance and board effectiveness in setting appropriate remu...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Mar 2010
Gregory Kirk
details how ASIC will regulate consumer credit.
Regulating consumer credit
From April, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will begin the process of registering providers of consumer credit and credit-related broking services as the first step ...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Mar 2010
With the number and costs of class actions rising in Australia,
Domini Stuart
investigates whether litigation funders should be regulated.
Should litigation funders be regulated?
Should litigation funders be regulated?
They operate like lawyers but do not have the same regulatio...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Mar 2010
Paul Madden
explains how the new Standard Business Reporting initiative will reduce your business-to-government reporting burden.
Easing the reporting load
From 1 July 2010, Australian companies will have more time to focus on the bottom line with the introduction of Standard Busi...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Feb 2010
As society re-appraises the risks posed by limited liability corporations,
Steven Cole
stresses the importance of balancing the liability burden faced by directors.
Balancing the director liability burden
In 1911, Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, said...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Feb 2010
Greg Medcraft
discusses ASIC’s efforts to build confidence in securitisation markets.
Building confidence in securitisation markets
With the darkest days of the global financial crisis now passed, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is actively working with...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Feb 2010
Domini Stuart
discusses why more companies are using underlying profit as a way to report their results in a more meaningful way.
Towards more meaningful reporting
For the year ended 30 June 2009, listed property group Stockland simultaneously reported an unde...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Nov 2009
States’ poor report card
Most Australian states have failed a new test that measures their “business-friendliness” from a director liability standpoint.
AICD’s new Boardroom Burden Report Card examined each state and territory’s legal regime to determine how much it imposes liability on directors, ...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Nov 2009
Professor Bob Baxt
examines the James Hardie penalty judgment and what it means for non-executive directors.
The Hardie fallout
When Justice Gzell handed down his initial decision in ASIC v Macdonald (no. 11) [2009] NSWSC 387 (Macdonald No. 11), his ruling was seen by many as very...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Oct 2009
In service of SMEs
As I travel around the country meeting AICD members, and prospective members, it is sometimes surprisingly suggested by directors of small and medium–sized enterprises (SMEs) that “AICD is not for SMEs”. This is certainly not the case.
Some feel AICD is not relevant to them, part...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Oct 2009
Tony D’Aloisio
discusses the regulatory challenges of achieving the right balance between efficiency and retail investor protection.
Efficiency vs investor protection
There have been calls for changes to financial sector and capital markets regulation since the global financial cr...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Apr 2009
Dr John Stuckey
recently told an ASIC Summer School dinner in Sydney that markets, not more regulation, would fix the global financial system, although some regulatory fiddling might also help. Here is an edited excerpt from his speech.
Leave it to the markets
Today I spent time sitting ...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Mar 2009
Veteran journalist
Alan Kohler
told directors attending a sellout AICD
i
luncheon in Brisbane in February to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Here is an edited version of what he had to say.
Be prepared
I am not here to tell you good news. I am not much ...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Feb 2009
Fred Hawke
explains why Side C insurance cover has become the albatross around directors’ necks.
The Side C aberration
An aberration has occurred in directors’ and officers’ or company reimbursement liability policies which include cover for the company’s own liabilities that may arise out ...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Feb 2009
Our mission in tough times
The holiday memories of salt water, sand, Test cricket and tennis are starting to fade. For those who kept in touch with the financial markets over the break, seasonal cheer for corporate Australia and for the economy as a whole was hard to find.
Among the sobering indica...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Dec 2008
Domini Stuart
reports on the dilemmas that mark-to-market accounting rules are creating in the current volatile economic climate.
Unfair value?
An instrument of clarity and transparency, reporting impartially on market performance after it has occurred? Or an instrument of doom, promotin...
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Content Type:
CDM Article
01 Dec 2008
Executive remuneration – time for a rethink?
Despite comments to the contrary, directors of Australian listed companies, by international comparisons, have done a reasonably good job of handling the inherent difficulties in executive remuneration, although there are exceptions to any general rule. ...