How banks can self-monitor their lending to comply with the equal credit opportunity act

The authors provide a step-by-step discussion of how an individual lender in the United States can self-monitor its loan process for compliance with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and provide an empirical example for illustration. Along the way, they discuss the problems faced by individual lenders who attempt to self-monitor their lending process and conclude with a discussion of the continuing, constructive role for bank examiners and regulators in this endeavor.Regulation B: Equal Credit Opportunity

Globalization And Multinational Auditing: The Case Of Gazprom And Pwc In Russia

In previous studies, we have reported a difference in how physical and virtual manipulatives support students\u27 understanding of the physics definition of work in the context of simple machines. We have shown that students who use the virtual manipulative (a computer simulation) before performing a physical experiment provided the correct response to multiple-choice questions about work more frequently than students who first use the physical manipulative. In this paper, we further analyze students\u27 responses to a series of questions about work in the context of inclined planes to explore the models students used to answer the questions. While we had anticipated that students who performed the physical experiment would incorrectly respond to the multiple-choice questions in accordance with their observations (i.e. a longer ramp requires more work due to frictional effects), we actually observed these students more frequently using an alternate model that a longer ramp requires less work. © 2012 American Institute of Physics

Early Adoption Of Ifrs As A Strategic Response To Transnational And Local Influences

In recent years, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have been adopted by nations throughout the world. Proponents and standard setters assert that IFRS will produce a number of benefits including improved transparency, international comparability, market efficiency, and cross-national investment flow. In this study, we examine factors that contributed to the early national-level adoption that occurred prior to broad global acceptance of IFRS. Using a conceptual framework of institutional theory and resource dependence, we propose that the interplay of transnational pressures and local factors influenced the level of adoption. We predict differential adoption as a strategic response at three levels of either require IFRS, permit IFRS, or do not allow IFRS, using a sample of 71 countries. As predicted, countries with greater resource dependency, as evidenced by weak governance structures and weak economies, were the early adopters who were more likely to require the use of IFRS. Further, resource dependence also trumps nationalistic pressures against transnational conformity. Our findings raise concerns that required adoption may not always be accompanied by an appropriately supportive infrastructure; thus, there are implications not only for adoption of IFRS, but also for the diffusion of other transnational regulation that influences global business environment

Sec\u27S Acceptance Of Ifrs-Based Financial Reporting: An Examination Based In Institutional Theory

In 2007 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made an historic ruling allowing foreign registrants to file IFRS-based financial statements without reconciling to U.S. GAAP. With that decision, the SEC changed its longstanding practice of adhering to a single set of accounting standards in the U.S. The decision diminishes the standing of two previously powerful institutions: U.S. GAAP and the SEC itself. We examine this important change drawing generally on institutional theory. We draw on several models to obtain insights into the likely roles of both regulator and regulatees, into the reasons the particular type of incremental change mechanism was observed, and into the influence of powerful transnational organizations on both the fact of change and timing of change. The key contribution of the article is to explicate incremental institutional change by examining specific mechanisms of change given the multi-level dynamic of accounting regulation. First, the interplay between national and transnational players and their coalitions shape what becomes an acceptable change mechanism. Second, layering mechanism, where new rules are attached to existing ones, is typically expected to destabilize existing institutions but can also decrease the push for broader change by layering regulation only for a particular segment. Finally, strategies employed by transnational accounting firms to stifle or promote institutional change are of interest. We focus specifically on their role in solidifying a transnational coalition of challengers to U.S. GAAP and therefore of apparently effecting the timing of the change. Documentary empirical data were drawn from the comment letters provided to the SEC in response to the proposed change, as well as from the SEC\u27s final ruling document and from related releases. We analyze formal comment letters issued in response to the proposed 2007 rule, compare those to expectations based on theory and in some cases to prior public positions taken. We interpret our findings against the backdrop of meta level shifts in regulatory loci toward privatization and transnationalization of standard setting

The Contemporary Gender Agenda Of The Us Public Accounting Profession: Embracing Feminism Or Maintaining Empire?

In this paper we analyze the social relations operating within the contemporary gender agenda of the United States (US) public accounting profession, with the ultimate goal of revealing the role that that agenda plays in the expansion of empire. Competing narratives of globalization are used to support our characterization of the US as a contemporary empire, and to develop the role played by the US profession in that imperial project. A feminist account of the ideology of domesticity serves as a framework to critique the contemporary gender agenda of the US profession, and feminist critiques of globalization and development are used to interpret the gendered nature of the economic agenda that is currently being exported by the US profession and its multinational clients. The analysis leads to conclusions about the involvement of the US profession in facilitating empire and about complexities embedded in the roles held by women in the US public accounting profession. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Known By The Company They Keep: A Study Of Political Campaign Contributions Made By The United States Public Accounting Profession

The U.S. public accounting profession commits substantial financial resources to federal election campaigns. In this paper, we explore the potential motivations for and consequences of those actions. We investigate the political contributions made by the profession during periods of proposed professional reform. We also analyze political contributions made during the 1997-1998 U.S. federal election cycle, with the intent of identifying systematic relationships between the levels of those contributions and the ideological profiles of the legislators receiving them. We argue that the profession is engaged politically in the management of its professional role in society and in the support of large clients\u27 interests. We also argue that the legislators supported by the profession have legislative agendas that are much broader than those of direct interest to the profession, and therefore the profession\u27s support may have unintended consequences. Our analyses of contributions data reveal that the profession shows preference for legislators who are sympathetic to pro-business agendas. At the same time, the legislators who receive financial support from the profession tend to favor conservative agendas, and tend to oppose agendas advanced by Civil Rights, Labor, Liberal, and Women\u27s groups. Our study provides insights into the fundamental role played by the accounting profession in U.S. society and the effects of the profession\u27s efforts to shape public policy. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Gender Differences In Revealed Risk Taking: Evidence From Mutual Fund Investors

Using data from a national survey of nearly 2000 mutual fund investors, we investigate whether investor gender is related to risk taking as revealed in mutual fund investment decisions. Consonant with the received literature, we find that women exhibit less risk-taking than men in their most recent, largest, and riskiest mutual fund investment decisions. More importantly, we find that the impact of gender on risk taking is significantly weakened when investor knowledge of financial markets and investments is controlled in the regression equation. This result suggests that the greater level of risk aversion among women that is frequently documented in the literature can be substantially, but not completely, explained by knowledge disparities. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Political Strategies Used By The Us Public Accounting Profession During Auditor Liability Reform: The Case Of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act Of 1995

In this paper we examine the US public accounting profession\u27s use of political strategies during the eight-year period leading up to the passage of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our analysis is organized and interpreted within the framework of a recently developed theoretical model of corporate political strategy. Much prior research has addressed the question of why the US public accounting profession would promote litigation reform. However, this study is the first to provide a detailed analysis of how the US profession acted to obtain such reform. The study contributes to the development of a general model of public accounting profession political strategy - a stream of research that is of critical importance given the vital role the federal government plays in the survival of the profession, the significant resources that the profession devotes to political activities, and the recent accounting industry reforms passed by the US Congress. © 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved