FinancialWeek - The Newspaper of Corporate Finance

Smaller credit raters cry foul over SEC’s proposed disclosure requirements By Neil Roland June 30, 2008 Plan to spur competition among credit rating agencies after the subprime debacle is drawing fire from industry participants who say it may help bigger firms at the expense of smaller ones. Siemens CFO: We're über it By Mark Bruno June 23, 2008 The German giant's one unscathed top executive won't let a $2 billion bribe scandal halt its revamp. Fund firm pitches plan to exit auction-rate mess By Megan Johnston June 23, 2008 Regulators have given closed-end fund providers the green light to issue a new kind of security to replace auction-rate preferred securities (ARPs), which fund companies say could bail out the... SEC may let firms phase in IFRS By Nicholas Rummell June 23, 2008 The regulator is leaning toward a soft open on switching to the international standards. But critics say gradual adoption would confuse investors. It's a lot less costly being green and mean By Frank Byrt June 23, 2008 With energy prices at record levels, corporate real estate is going green, not for public relations purposes but out of simple economic necessity. P&G leads the charge, with plans to spend $5 million on energy-saving projects. Lehman's woes aren't over yet By Marine Cole June 16, 2008 Despite a new CFO and $6 billion in fresh capital, the i-bank's exposure to toxic mortgages still looks high. And fresh trouble looms: Check out its commercial property load. Out of the picture By Megan Johnston June 16, 2008 Lehman high-flier Erin Callan isn't the first Wall Street finance exec to crash—or to lack numbers chops. But insiders say a new CFO—even one with a more conservative financial background—may not be enough to pacify the i-bank's nervous investors. AIG faces fed heat on its swaps values By Marine Cole June 16, 2008 The SEC and DOJ are poking into the insurer's motivation for choosing the accounting it used for credit derivatives. But the regulators are more interested in the insurance giant's intentions when it chose the method that it did than the accuracy of its valuation methods.		401(k) sponsors push for fee cuts By Mark Bruno June 23, 2008 With a slew of liability lawsuits pending, employers are putting the squeeze on their 401(k) providers. Banks' pipelines to fresh capital are narrowing By Marine Cole June 23, 2008 Losses and write-downs at U.S. banks continue to pour in, forcing institutions to raise new capital. But banks' options for raising money are starting to shrink, forcing them to pay more for capital and dilute existing shareholders. Low odds for NYSE effort to ease SarbOx By Neil Roland June 23, 2008 The Big Board plans to lobby Congress next year to relax the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for small and mid-size companies. But veteran regulation-watchers don't see the push getting much traction. One candle on the cake for a public Blackstone By Matthew Monks June 23, 2008 Taking stock as Blackstone IPO passes the one-year mark: Its shareholders have taken a big, big hit, but analysts are sanguine about the private equity firm's future. Corporate acquirers line up for M&A buffet By Matthew Monks June 16, 2008 Dealmakers say this is the best corporate mergers and acquisitions market they've seen in years, now that the buyout boom is over and deal prices are starting to inch down. Pensions for execs test new heights By Mark Bruno June 16, 2008 When it comes to executive pensions, the largest packages sometimes occur at the smallest companies. And the biggest SERP bennies go to...Joel Gemunder? SEC preparing to lasso credit rating agencies By Neil Roland June 16, 2008 The regulator is poised to approve a controversial plan to create a different rating system for complex securities that is opposed by a Republican commissioner and a Wall Street group. The new rules could cost raters $130 million a year. Bribery cases shine light on some oily characters By Neil Roland June 16, 2008 Why have energy companies been snared so often in the U.S. crackdown on foreign payoffs? A top Baker Hughes exec offers lessons for his peers.
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