外刊扫描

高盛CEO致电客户称证交会指控将"伤害美国"高盛首席执行官劳埃德·布兰克费恩21日在打给一些重要客户的电话中,抨击了美国证交会(SEC)指控其欺诈的行动。据一位接到电话的人士透露,布兰克费恩告诉他们,证交会对高盛的指控带有政治目的,将"伤害美国"。布兰克费恩正奋起反击,阻止公司声誉继     

关于“裸卖空”和“CDS裸卖空”的经济分析及启示

金融危机后,欧美监管当局针对证券市场裸卖空和CDS裸卖空制定了包括短期禁令在内的各种新政策。这些新政使得相关问题再度引起热议。本文针对这一热点,在理清卖空、证券市场裸卖空以及CDS裸卖空概念的基础上,指出了CDS裸卖空与证券市场裸卖空在众多方面存在的本质性区别。与此同时,文章对欧美监管当局关于卖空和裸卖空的监管政策演变和最新动态进行了简要介绍。最后,文章还总结了欧美监管当局的相关新政对我国发展金融市场的启示。     

外刊文摘

美国证交会放宽外国上市公司合规要求美国证交会(SEC)日前降低了在美上市的外国公司绕开《萨班斯-奥克斯利法》(Sarbanes-Oxley)的难度,从而解除了最令这些公司头疼的监管负担之一。     

美国金融监管放松改革的影响与启示研究--《经济增长、监管放松与消费者保护法案》评析北大核心

在全球金融体系中,美国占据举足轻重的位置,其监管政策走向一直为世界广泛关注。在竞选总统之初,特朗普就明确提出了"金融去监管"的口号,主张废除2010年出台的《多德-弗兰克法案》。2018年5月24日,特朗普签署《经济增长、监管放松与消费者保护法案》,正式修改了《多德-弗兰克法案》。本文概括分析了主要修改的五个方面:对抵押贷款的监管放松,对社区银行的监管放松,对大型银行的监管放松,对证券市场的监管放松,加强金融消费者权益保护。相应地,新法案将带来四个方面的潜在影响:能够释放中小型银行活力,助力美国经济复苏反弹;会产生监管外溢效应,迫使他国被动跟进并引发全球性金融监管放松;将带动相关金融监管规则的修订,未来或将推出更多监管放松措施;监管放松将引发更多风险事件,后续会推高联邦赤字。最后,本文结合我国实际情况提出三方面建议:重新审视监管政策,建立差异化的监管思路;警惕美国系列政策的影响,采取妥善政策措施加以应对;借鉴美国相关政策的做法,加大金融消费者权益保护力度。     

美国金融监管模式的改革趋势及对我国的借鉴

美国于1999年11月通过的《金融服务现代化法》第一次以立法的形式正式废除了长达60年之久的分业经营模式,同时确立了与美国混业经营特点相适应的伞型监管模式,支持了美国金融业的繁荣。但是随着金融创新的不断涌现和风险的快速传递,该监管模式制也越来越多地暴露出一些问题,对此各界提出了各式各样的改革建议。2008年3月29日美国财政部终于公布了包括短期和中期的改革建议。顺应全球协调、统一监管标准已成为美国金融监管模式的改革趋势,这对于我国无疑有着很大的借鉴意义。     

美国金融监管模式的改革趋势对我国的借鉴

美国于1999年11月通过的<金融服务现代化法>第一次以立法的形式正式废除了长达60年之久的分业经营模式,同时确立了与美国混业经营特点相适应的伞型监管模式,支持了美国金融业的繁荣.但是随着金融创新的不断涌现和风险的快逮传递,该监管模式制也越来越多地暴露出一些问题,对此各界提出了各式各样的改革建议.2008年3月29日美国财政部终于公布了包括短期和中期的改革建议.顺应全球协调、统一监管标准已成为美国金融监管模式的改革趋势,这对于我国无疑有着很大的借鉴意义.     

全球股票市场卖空交易机制的演进与发展分析

双向交易是资本市场的基本制度,目前全球主要市场均已建立卖空机制,双向交易成为资本市场普遍选择。文章从股票市场卖空交易机制的建立伊始,回顾了双向交易机制从建立到初步发展——被质疑——逐步完善并被广泛认可的演进过程。文章详细介绍了1929年全球股灾后股票卖空市场发生的巨大变革,包括完善交易制度、纳入法律监管范畴等,追踪了2008年金融海啸中海外市场禁止股票卖空的事件,深入分析了"禁空令"对市场的影响。2011年欧债危机中欧洲六国重拾限空令,但美英德没有跟进,表现出这些监管机构相较2008年,对股票卖空的态度发生了明显的转变。文章认为,双向交易历史悠久,是资本市场不可或缺的基础交易制度和有机组成部分,是资本市场的客观需求产物和内在稳定机制,是我国资本市场健康发展的基础。然而,发展双向交易的同时,必须严格监管,禁止裸卖空,重点打击利用双向交易进行市场操纵的企图。     

美国三政策组合的金融实验及其效果

2008年的金融危机使全球认识到金融稳定在经济稳定中的重要性,相应的货币政策、宏观审慎监管、微观监管成为最重要的经济金融三政策组合,各国也普遍开始建立宏观审慎监管体系.三政策与各自目标间的关系及交互作用已成为各国关注和最具争议的重大理论和实践课题. 美国三政策组合的实验及效果 金融危机以来,美国采取货币政策与金融监管搭配来同时实现宏观经济与金融稳定目标,这是一次全新的经济金融政策实验,其结果关乎美国乃至全球经济金融的可持续发展.美国实践揭示,金融监管对货币政策效果及经济目标具有重大影响,并且其对经济稳定的影响可能超过货币政策对金融稳定的作用.     

美国场外衍生品监管规则的演变与改革述评

本文介绍了美国对场外衍生品市场的监管规则和监管改革内容,分析并评论了美国场外衍生品市场的监管改革计划的主要内容和特点,指出其在重要概念、价值计量、结算方式、监管模式和效用、跨国交易、创新和监管关系方面依然存在问题。     

国际金融监管理念的最新演进——基于原则监管方法的分析和思考

次贷危机爆发后,美国金融监管改革的呼声一浪高过一浪,采用原则监管以取代原先的规则监管更是受到了有关当局前所未有的重视。同时,日本金融厅也宣布其将效仿英国式监管风格,由规则监管向原则监管转变。而英国在多年原则监管的实践中不断改善和发展,于2007年推出了原则监管的升级版"MPBR行动"。本文在阐述原则监管的内涵与监管理念的基础上,分析推行原则监管的优势所在,并对我国推行原则监管的可行性进行了思考。     

不利意见、审计费用与意见购买

本文进一步区分上年度不利审计意见的具体类型、审计费用的升降以及审计意见的改善与恶化。研究证实:(1)上年度被出具不利审计意见虽然可能增加本年度收到不利审计意见的可能性,但是亦可能提高审计意见改善的可能性,并和审计意见出现恶化的可能性显著负相关。(2)如果上年度被出具不利审计意见,则异常审计费用与审计意见改善的可能性显著正相关。(3)审计费用的增加能显著降低被出具不利审计意见的可能性,并可有效防止年报审计意见出现恶化。可见,公司管理层可以通过提高审计费用成功地实现审计意见购买动机,在一定程度上规避不利审计意见。     

Economic analysis of accountants' ethical standards: The case of audit opinion shopping

The public accounting profession presently employs a strict system of ethical standards that relies upon explicit rules plus monitoring and enforcement procedures that penalize violations of the rules. An alternative approach to ethical standards that the public accounting profession may wish to consider is a laissez faire approach. Instead of rules and penalties to enforce desired behaviors, the laissez faire approach utilizes moral training and leadership to motivate professional accountants to act in the public interest, for the sake of the profession as a whole. The theoretical basis for the laissez faire approach is a growing body of evidence in economics and related disciplines that people often take actions to further the collective welfare of a group despite a detrimental effect on their own selfish interests. This paper offers a framework for examining the relative economic merits of the strict and laissez faire approaches to ethical standards within the accounting profession. The framework is based on game theory, and the setting employed in the paper involves opinion shopping by audit clients. The paper finds that the effectiveness of a laissez faire approach to ethical standards, at least in the opinion-shopping scenario, is related to (a) the ethical climate, which refers to the likelihood a given independent auditor will choose the ethical action, (b) the frequency of independent auditor rotation, which reduces the economic advantage of being the incumbent auditor, (c) the explicitness of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which reduces uncertainty over whether or not a particular act is ethical, (d) the availability of opportunities to discuss ethical choices with rival auditors, and (e) disclosure requirements associated with auditor–client disputes over material accounting issues.     

How audit effort affects audit quality: An audit process and audit output perspective

Using a unique dataset of audit days in China from 2006 to 2011, this paper examines the relationship between audit effort and audit quality from the perspective of audit process and audit output. The results show that audit effort significantly increases the probability of audit adjustments, which inhibits positive earnings management and improves the quality of audited financial statements. We also find that audit effort does not have a significant effect on the issuance of modified audit opinions overall, but that a modified audit opinion is more likely to be issued in the absence of an audit adjustment. Furthermore, we find that the impact of audit effort on audit quality is attenuated when clients are more complex and when audit firms are larger. Collectively, our evidence suggests that audit effort plays an important role in improving audit quality by influencing audit process and audit output. Our study extends the literature on the impact of audit effort on audit quality in emerging markets, and the conclusions have important implications for the improvement of China’s audit market efficiency.     

Relation between external audit fees, audit committee characteristics and internal audit

This study examines whether the existence of an audit committee, audit committee characteristics and the use of internal audit are associated with higher external audit fees. Higher audit fees imply increased audit testing and higher audit quality. We find that the existence of an audit committee, more frequent committee meetings and increased use of internal audit are related to higher audit fees. The expertise of audit committee members is associated with higher audit fees when meeting frequency and independence are low. These findings are consistent with an increased demand for higher quality auditing by audit committees, and by firms that make greater use of internal audit.     

Transforming audit technologies: Business risk audit methodologies and the audit field

Business Risk Audit (BRA) methodologies have been promoted by a number of the large audit firms in response, they claim, to the challenges of the information age and corporate clients’ needs for assurance. This paper subjects their claim to critical scrutiny, drawing on the perspectives of neo-institutional theories of legitimacy, the sociology of professional knowledge and the sociology of science and technology. To bring into play new Business Risk Audit methodologies a number of the larger firms have sought, through their auditing practice, to renegotiate the bases of their professional identity and status within audit firms and to widen their jurisdictional claims over other areas of expertise. These moves have been accompanied by the legitimation and embedding of Business Risk Audit in revised constructions of the market for audit, in abstract academic knowledges, reforms of professional education, and professional regulations. In providing a constructivist account of Business Risk Audit technologies, we argue for a theory of audit change that recognises (i) the centrality of legitimation processes and (ii) the co-construction of audit technology and the audit field.     

Place attachment,audit pricing and audit quality

Place attachment is an affective bond whereby people interact with and describe themselves as belonging to specific places. This study investigates the presence of place attachment in the auditing process. Using a large sample of listed clients in China, the findings reveal that auditors are likely to charge higher fees if their colleges are located in the same cities or provinces as their clients, supporting the familiarity bias hypothesis. This effect is more concentrated among smaller auditors, non-state-owned clients, and clients who switch auditors between years. In addition, a negative relationship is found between audit quality and geographical connections between auditors and clients. Overall, the results indicate the existence of place attachment in the auditing process.     

The impact of audit committee expertise on audit quality: Evidence from UK audit fees

Governance regulators currently place great emphasis on ensuring the presence of financial expertise on audit committees (Sarbanes-Oxley, 2002; UK Corporate Governance Code 2010–2016). Underlying this is a belief that greater expertise enhances the effectiveness of audit committees and, by extension, the quality of the external audit. This study investigates the impact of audit committee expertise on one measure of audit quality - audit fees paid by FTSE350 companies. Our analysis finds that audit committees possessing greater levels of financial expertise are associated with higher audit fees. When we segregate financial expertise between accounting and non-accounting, we find that the positive impact identified is driven by non-accounting expertise. Furthermore, when we separate FTSE100 and FTSE250 firms we find the impact of financial expertise is confined to FTSE250 firms. Our findings are important as they highlight the usefulness of segregating financial expertise between specialists and non-specialists, something which regulators in the UK and in the USA currently do not do. Our findings also highlight the potential value of audit committee expertise in smaller as opposed to larger listed firms, suggesting that the value of expertise to audit quality depends on the specific financial reporting challenges firms face.     

Effects of audit committee chair characteristics on auditor choice,audit fee and audit quality

We investigate whether the characteristics of audit committee (AC) chairs are associated with decisions about auditor choice, audit fees and audit quality. Using hand-collected Australian data, firms with AC chairs who have longer tenure and multiple AC memberships across several boards are found to be more likely to choose Big 4 and/or industry specialist auditors, pay higher audit fees and have lower discretionary accruals. Those AC chairs with higher business qualifications are more likely to hire a Big 4 auditor, pay higher audit fees and have lower discretionary accruals, while AC chairs with professional qualifications are more likely to hire a Big 4 and/or industry specialist auditor. In contrast, firms with AC chairs who are executive directors are less likely to hire a Big 4 auditor and have higher discretionary accruals. Our findings contribute to the literature by documenting that various characteristics of AC chairs are important for enhancement of auditor selection and audit quality.     

The effect of audit market structure on audit quality and audit pricing in the private-client market

This study examines whether audit market structure affects audit quality and audit pricing. We analyze two conceptually distinct dimensions of market structure: audit market concentration and client mobility. Focusing on the private-client segment of the Belgian audit market, we compare the pricing and quality effects of market structure between the segment of small and medium-sized (SME) clients and the segment of large clients to test how audit complexity moderates such effects. We find that market concentration impairs price and quality competition in the SME-client segment. Market concentration is unrelated to audit quality in the large-client segment, where we argue that concentration is endogenous to audit complexity. Furthermore, we find that client mobility stimulates price competition in both segments but improves audit quality only in the large-client segment. We interpret our findings as evidence that (a) audit market concentration impairs competition especially when audits have low complexity and that (b) the large-client market segment, characterized by higher audit complexity and higher market concentration, can also be price and quality competitive if clients are sufficiently mobile, and change auditors relatively frequently.     

The role of audit evidence in a strategic audit

This study examines how audit risk (the probability of false acceptance) and its components change when the auditor obtains audit evidence in an acceptance sampling model. Inherent risk and audit risk increase with audit evidence if the auditee has a sufficiently strong incentive for committing fraud. Detection risk always increases when audit evidence is introduced. If the auditor has a sufficiently strong incentive for avoiding false rejection, audit risk also increases with audit evidence. The analysis indicates that requiring auditors to obtain information is not effective in preventing material misstatements in at least some instances.