Fwd: EU on accounting body; US wants greater role in ADB

>Date: Mon, 03 May 1999 14:46:24 -0400
>From: "Carol Welch" <CWelch@foe.org>
>Subject: EU on accounting body; US wants greater role in ADB
>
>>From WB's development news
>
>BRUSSELS SEEKS INDEPENDENT BODY TO SET GLOBAL RULES
>
>The European Commission wants global financial reporting rules to be set by a
>body free from the control of accountants and the domination of existing
>financial reporting regulators, the Financial Times (p.4) reports. John
Mogg,
>director general of the commission's internal market and financial services
>directorate, has made clear Brussels believes the new body has to represent
>international capital markets and trading blocs if it is to be part of the
>"global financial architecture" envisaged by the G7 industrialized
nations. The
>commission also wants regulators and the users of accounts to have a role in
>framing accounting standards so as to avoid "esoteric" rules and to bind
the new
>body into the emerging global regulatory structure.
>
>Brussels' views threaten a split over the future direction of global
financial
>reporting between the US and Europe-with the UK's Accounting Standards Board
>seeking to appear as an honest broker in the dispute, says the story.
>
>International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) Secretary General Sir
Bryan
>Carsberg has put forward a blueprint to modernize the IASC so that it can
become
>a single global standard setter. It is being encouraged by the G7, the World
>Bank, and the IMF in its work, says the story, but the proposed structure has
>been widely criticized.
>
>Meanwhile, the FT (5/1, p.26) says in a separate report that Hong Kong
Monetary
>Authority Chairman Joseph Yam warned at the ADB annual meeting on Friday that
>industrial countries' dwindling interest in regulating hedge funds leaves the
>world vulnerable to more turbulence in financial markets.
>
>US TRIES TO INCREASE CONTROL OVER ADB
>
>The US is stirring up controversy among its Asian partners with an attempt to
>exert greater control over the policies of the ADB, reports the Financial
Times
>(p.3). US Treasury official Edwin Truman shocked many delegates at the ADB
>annual meeting at the weekend with a blunt public demand for the bank to
"accept
>a common set of norms and standards" in development policy.
>
>Truman said the ADB should sign a formal agreement with the World Bank
setting
>out its place in a "common framework" of multilateral institutions. He added
>that the institution needed to "adhere to and promote" the features of the
>
>international financial architecture. Truman's remarks are widely
reported by
>the world press.
>
>Delegates said the US comments reflected concern that recent increases in
>bilateral funding from Japan were giving Tokyo more influence over the
>institution. Also in the background is US concern that the ADB staff, taking
>its cue from Asian countries, may adopt a more independent policy stance
in the
>future, at odds with the Washington orthodoxy, the story says.
>
>The controversy overshadowed preliminary talks to replenish the Asian
>Development Fund, which provides loans on concessional terms to the region's

>poorest countries, notes the story.
>
>
>
>Carol Welch
>International Policy Analyst
>Friends of the Earth
>202-783-7400 x. 237
>
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