Definition of Creative Accounting Creative accounting is accounting practice that falls outside the regulation and give benefit to certain people. It can be described as a practice with a clear aim to interrupt the financial reporting process which affects reported income to make it looked normal and provides no true economic advantages to relevant parties like shareholders. Concisely, creative accounting is the transformation of financial accounting figures from what they actually are to what users’ desire by taking advantage of the accounting policies which is permitted by accounting standards. Creative accounting is a practice that potentially being undertaken as a result from some individual care more on their own interest and indirectly causes issues arise in ethical dimension of creative accounting. From information perspective, agency theory gives a clear picture on creative accounting scenario. Whereby managers misuse their privileged position in manipulating financial reporting in their own interest which Continue reading
Business Ethics
Case Study on Corporate Governance: UTI Scam
Of all the recent encounters of the Indian public with the much-celebrated forces of the market, the Unit Trust’s US-64 debacle is the worst. Its gravity far exceeds the stock market downswing of the mid-1990s, which wiped out Rs. 20,000 crores in savings. The debacle is part of the economic slowdown which has eliminated one million jobs and also burst the information technology (IT) bubble. This has tragically led to suicides by investors. And then suspension of trading in US-64made the hapless investors more dejected at the sinking of this “super-safe” public sector instrument that had delivered a regular return since 1964. There is a larger lesson in the US-64 debacle for policies towards public savings and public sector undertakings (PSUs). The US-64 crisis is rooted in plain mismanagement. US-64 was launched as a steady income fund. Logically, it should have invested in debt, especially low-risk fixed-income government bonds. Instead, Continue reading
Definitions of Corporate Governance
The concept of corporate governance is poorly defined because it covers various economics aspects. As a result of this different people have come up with different definitions on corporate governance. It is hard to point on any one definition as the ultimate definition on corporate governance. So the best way to define the concept is to provide a list of the definitions given by some noteworthy people. Various Definitions of Corporate Governance 1. According to Sir Adrian Cadbury “The system by which companies are directed and controlled Corporate Governance is concerned with holding the balance between economic and social goals and between individual and communal goals. The corporate governance framework is there to encourage the efficient use of resources and equally to require accountability for the stewardship of those resources. The aim is to align as nearly as possible the interests of individuals, corporations and society” 2. According Continue reading
Recent Developments in Corporate Governance
The Department of Company Affairs, in May 2000, invited a group of leading industrialists, professionals and academics to study and recommend measures to enhance corporate excellence in India. The Study Group in turn set up a Task Force, which examined the subject of Corporate Excellence through sound corporate governance and submitted its report in Nov. 2000. The task force in its recommendations identified two classifications namely essential and desirable with the former to be introduced immediately by legislation and the latter to be left to the discretion of companies and their shareholders. Some of the recommendations of the task force include: Greater role and influence for nonexecutive independent directors Stringent punishment for executive directors for failing to comply with listing and other requirements Limitation on the nature and number of directorship of managing and whole-time directors Proper disclosure to the shareholders and investing community Interested shareholders to Continue reading
Why Do Organizations Have a Code of Ethics?
Business ethics are the guidelines a company has in place to follow when interacting with internal and external sources, with the purpose being to impact the way in which they do business. It also means that all professionals will be held to the same standard, as it’s something the organisation’s core values and principles are based on. It is beneficial to ensure that everyone involved are treated with respect, and to create a working environment that’s as positive as possible. By having a code of ethics, a business is presenting themselves as having a unified attitude and would be seen as behaving with integrity. Businesses adopting a code of ethics will create a stronger environment of trust and integrity within the workplace. It is helpful when all employees, including management, are following the same rules and behaving in a certain way because it means most conflicts will be removed from Continue reading
Case Study: Reasons behind the Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers
The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers was a result of the investment bank’s exposure to the 2007-2010 financial crisis. In fact, the demise of the investment bank would come to symbolize the crisis. Therefore, in order to understand the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, a consummate understanding of the 2007-2010 financial crisis is requisite. As such, an examination of crisis will serve as introductory. Several factors contributed to the fall of Lehman Brothers. Perhaps most important, however, was the period of deregulation that preceded the crisis. Arguably, the period of deregulation started during the Reagan Era. Reaganomics, the lassiez faire economic policies advocated by the former president, may have served as the starting point for the deregulatory climate that ensued for the following two decades. Either way, the following two decades witnessed an overriding belief in the virtues of deregulation. In 1999, President Clinton signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act into Continue reading