PAPER PROPHETS AND THE CONTINUING CASE FOR THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT ACCOUNTING RESEARCH

This review of Tony Tinker’s Autocritique presented at the First International Accounting Seminar, Department of Finance and Accounting, Glasgow Caledonian University, is not a critique of what Tinker thinks of his own book. He should know best about what he wrote or wanted to write. It also does not assess the validity of his interpretation of the works of Marx or Hegel. What it does is to reflect further on an important issue underlying much of Tinker’s presentation—namely, the concern with research methodology. The review welcomes Tinker’s desires for change in approaches to accounting case studies but suggests that the underlying problems are more complex than Tinker suggests and demands a broader scale of response than that highlighted in his presentation.     

AN EXPANDED COMMERCIAL PAPER RATING SCALE: CLASSIFICATION OF INDUSTRIAL ISSUERS

The finance literature contains many examples of attempts to classify bond issuers into rating categories and to identify the key variables which contribute to bond rating differences. This study extends the classification literature to include industrial commercial paper issuers. Standard and Poor's has expanded its A- 1 commercial paper category, and hypothesized division characteristics are proposed, followed by the classification test. The relative comparability of key variables in this study to those in bond studies is striking.     

ASSET BACKED COMMERCIAL PAPER: GET WITH THE PROGRAM

Asset backed commercial paper, or ABCP for short, is commercial paper that is issued by a special purpose corporation against undivided interests in corporate receivables, including retail, trade, or export receivables. Since the inception of the market in 1983, the volume of ABCP has grown to represent about 16% of the total commercial paper market.
ABCP is a valuable source of liquidity for companies that generate a steady flow of quality receivables. Many ABCP programs restrict purchases to companies with investment grade ratings. For such companies, ABCP may help diversify funding sources and allow the firms to lower their funding costs by arbitraging different markets. But ABCP programs can also prove a low-cost source of funding for companies that either do not have access to the CP market through their own balance sheets or have used up their prime CP and bank borrowing capacity. ABCP is also an important source of funds for smaller companies requiring liquidity to support rapid growth.
ABCP programs can be viewed as "synthetic" revolving bank credit facilities in the sense that they can provide the same flow of funds as revolving credits by using a vehicle constructed specifically to refinance pools of receivables. The benefits of ABCP relative to bank lines of credit may take the form of either lower interest rates, less restrictive financial covenants, or both. Although ABCP is at best a partial substitute for bank credit, the liquidity provided by an asset backed commercial paper program can be used to hold down the costs of bank borrowing.     

千姿百态的纸币图案--建筑物(二)

交通银行大楼成立于光绪三十四年(1908年)的交通银行,系清政府为赎回京汉铁路和经办铁路、电报、邮政、航运四项事业的收付而设立的一家“官商合办”银行。南京国民政府成立后总行由北京迁至上海,成为政府特许发展全国实业的银行,也是旧中国发钞历史最悠久的银行。在长达数十年     

POLICY PAPER: The Technical Process of Bank Privatization in Mexico

This paper describes the process of Mexican bank privatization that took place in 1991. We show that the Mexican government was very careful to ensure due process and transparency through the entire bank privatization process. However, the lack of a legal and regulatory framework and lax oversight shadowed the success of the technical process. Hence, the financial system in Mexico had to deal with a banking crisis shortly after their privatization, in 1994.     

银行票据质押有关法律问题探讨

票据质押贷款现在已经成为银行信贷业务中一个常见的担保方式.在具体操作中,对于票据质押的设定、转让、行使以及不得转让的票据能否质押等都是常见的问题.对于票据的质押和转让虽有一些原则性的法律法规,但这些规定的效力随着最高法院关于审理票据纠纷的司法解释的出台而多有歧义,银行无所适从.此外,由于法律对于权利质押的规定缺乏操作性,加之担保法和票据法相关的规定存在一定的中突,使得实际操作中难以判断正确的行为方式.本文将从票据质押行为的法律性质入手,结合票据法的基本理论,对上述问题进行较为深入的探讨,以期解决一些实际问题.     

ACCOUNTING REGULATION: AN ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE

This paper analyses the debate over accounting regulation. Accepting the need for regulation, it first rejects the view of accounts as maps before going on question the conventional wisdom that the incompatibility of "interests" means that lack of agreement on standards is inevitable. It argues that conflicts over accounting standards are the result of clashes of worldview rather than interest, and provides evidence of this by analysing the debate over three contentious standards. The conclusion is that an agreed conceptual framework is feasible, although not on the basis currently envisaged.