ABSTRACT In the years following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, corporations have heightened their efforts to comprehensively manage all aspect of business risk that could jeopardize their operations or potentially lead to business failure. This increase in efforts have motivated firms to adopt additional preventative measures to internally manage their unique portfolios of impeding enterprise risk. Due to legislative efforts by the U.S. Congress, both the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) were broadly developed to improve corporate governance while increasing transparency within financial reporting. Specifically, Dodd-Frank mandates that large financial firms with $50 billion in assets establish special committees dedicated to assessing their financial risks. Meanwhile, SOX requires all public firms to establish rigorous internal control systems to ensure the adequacy of financial reporting. However, these laws mainly target financial firms and fall short of requiring nonfinancial firms to establish a separate committee to manage corporate risk even though it would be in these companies own interest to enhance their safeguarding efforts against ambiguous financial uncertainties, reputation downshifts, and other inherent risk. This dissertation seeks to understand whether a separate voluntary risk management committee at the board level is related to the financial stability and creditworthiness of nonfinancial firms. Firstly, we investigated whether the existence of a separate risk management committee is associated with the firm’s leverage, solvency, financial health, and organizational soundness. Secondly, we examined whether the existence of a separate risk management committee is associated with the firm’s short- and long-term credit ratings. Using secondary data from Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS), we analyzed data from a wide range of financial ratios and credit ratings from companies listed on the S&P 1500 index to evaluate if these committees have an association with the firm’s ability to manage its risk effectively. Regression analysis was utilized to explore this relationship. Although the direction of the relationship cannot be determined, the results suggest that the establishment of a separate voluntary risk management committee was minimally related to the financial soundness of the firm and was not related to the firm's leverage, solvency, or overall organizational soundness. Inferences or causality cannot be made. Additionally, we found that firms with better short-term credit ratings were more likely to establish a voluntary risk management committee, while long-term credit ratings did not show a correlation with the presence of a voluntary risk management committee. Interestingly, the study also found that the presence of more men on the board and a larger board size increased the likelihood of firms adopting a risk management committee, but over time, the interest in forming these committees has declined within the timeframe reviewed, particularly in the healthcare, communication, and utilities sectors. The results of this study suggest that relying on traditional financial/accounting ratios might not be the most effective method for assessing a firm's risk. Further, these results underscore the need for a more comprehensive approach that includes both quantitative and qualitative risk assessments and approaches. This dissertation contributes to the benefits of establishing a voluntary risk management committee in nonfinancial firms, which is a topic that has not been extensively researched. The aim is to offer a deeper insight into the benefits of such committees and encourage more firms to improve their risk management practices where positive correlations were identified. / Business Administration/Interdisciplinary

Visselblåsarbegreppet har blivit ett allt mer frekvent förekommande inslag inom den unionsrättsliga lagstiftningen, och vikten av att beskydda arbetstagare som bistår myndigheter med information som kan stoppa överträdelser har på senare år uppmärksammats och betonats världen över. I samband med en modernisering och uppdatering av den finansmarknadsrättsliga lagstiftningen, inte minst till följd av den tekniska utvecklingen inom området, valde EU:s lagstiftande organ att göra en markering mot fysiska och juridiska personer som ägnar sig åt överträdelser som kan vilseleda aktörerna på de finansiella marknaderna. Bland annat infördes, genom ett antal nya rättsakter, enhetliga sanktioner samt minimibestämmelser för kriminalisering av vissa ageranden. Vid framtagandet av lagstiftningen diskuterades även på EU-nivå huruvida ett potentiellt införande av ekonomiska incitament för visselblåsare som bidrar med värdefull information i fråga om marknadsmissbruk borde utgöra en del av det sociala skyddet för nämnda individer. Medlemsstaterna hade redan i samband med tidigare unionsöverskridande lagstiftning ålagts att vidta särskilda åtgärder för att säkerställa att visselblåsare erhåller skydd gentemot arbetsgivare avseende hämndaktioner, men här, tydligt inspirerade av den amerikanska lagstiftningen i motsvarande område, öppnade EU för första gången för att låta unionsmedlemmarna erbjuda monetära utbetalningar till visselblåsare. I förevarande uppsats presenteras den aktuella EU-lagstiftningen samt den inhemska lagstiftning som bestämmelserna genererat i Sverige. Nämnda inslag sätts i relation till den amerikanska visselblåsarlagstiftningen. En redogörelse för lagstiftningens mottagande och effekt – kombinerat med teoretiska såväl som statistiska studier avseende ekonomiska incitament kopplat till visselblåsning – används för att besvara frågan huruvida ett införande av nämnda incitament skulle kunna utgöra ett ändamålsenligt inslag inom den svenska lagstiftningen. Min argumentation, vilken presenteras i analysdelen, utmynnar i ståndpunkten att ekonomiska incitament mycket väl skulle kunna utgöra en funktionell beståndsdel av visselblåsarskyddet, men att lagstiftningens utformning och det praktiska utförandet skulle kunna optimeras jämfört med dess amerikanska motsvarighet. Vidare vill jag i analysavsnittet betona vikten av ett skifte i inställning och attityd inom europeisk rättskultur gentemot visselblåsare.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:40:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Magali Aparecida Camazano.pdf: 740899 bytes, checksum: a0beef09f1c292595d15bc89e031aaca (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-02-14 / Deregulation and globalization of financial services allied with the sophisticated technology used to perform financial operations have increased the complexity of banking activities resulting in the subsequent exposure of financial corporations to operational risk. Several cases of huge losses related to operational risk have been reported in the last 10 years as the bankruptcy of the traditional Barings Bank in England. Therefore, the New Basel Capital Accord (Basel II), published by the Basel Committee in 2004, established that internationally active banks are required to allocate capital to cope with operational risk (just as required for credit and market risks). The Brazilian Central Bank, following the demands as established by the Basel II Accord has also determined that Brazilian financial corporations are required to allocate regulatory capital to face operational risk as well as implement an operational risk management framework. At the same time, losses related to operational risk occurred in different segments of the economy where American corporations as Enron and WorldCom perpetrated huge accounting frauds resulting in their subsequent bankruptcy in 2001 and 2002 respectively. These events led to the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. On account of the importance of operational risk management for the soundness of the financial market and the close relation existing between such risk and the requirements mandated by Sarbanes-Oxley, such as the enhancement of accounting internal controls and corporate governance attributes, this paper intends to study the influence as set forth by the American Act over the operational risk management within the Brazilian financial corporations that are required to comply with this Act such as Bradesco, Itaú and Unibanco. Thus, a comparison was made between the framework established by the Basel Committee for the banking operational risk management and the mandates of Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This study disclosed that both, either the Basel Committee framework as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act focus on the same purposes, that is, control and mitigate the events likely to result in operational risk. Sarbanes-Oxley enables the enhancement of both, accounting internal controls and corporate governance practices, as it will serve as an additional tool for the management of operational risk, cooperating with and supplementing the Basel Committee framework. Therefore, Sarbanes-Oxley allows the Brazilian financial corporations to lower the capital allocation for operational risk due to their decreasing exposure to related risk / A desregulamentação e a globalização dos serviços financeiros associadas à sofisticação das tecnologias financeiras têm aumentado a complexidade das atividades bancárias e a conseqüente exposição dos bancos ao risco operacional. Casos diversos de perdas catastróficas relacionadas ao risco operacional se fizeram presentes nos últimos 10 anos, a exemplo da quebra do tradicional Barings Bank, na Inglaterra. Por decorrência, o Novo Acordo de Capital da Basiléia (Basiléia II), divulgado pelo Comitê da Basiléia em 2004, introduziu a necessidade de alocação de capital para risco operacional (tal qual para os riscos de crédito e de mercado) pelos bancos internacionalmente ativos. O Banco Central do Brasil, à luz do Acordo Basiléia II, igualmente instituiu a necessidade de alocação de capital regulatório para o risco operacional por parte das instituições financeiras brasileiras, bem como a implementação de estrutura de gerenciamento do risco operacional. Paralelamente, prejuízos relacionados ao risco operacional ocorreram em outros segmentos da economia, destacando-se os escândalos contábeis e falências das empresas americanas Enron e WorldCom em 2001 e 2002, respectivamente, culminando na promulgação do Sarbanes- Oxley Act of 2002. Face à importância do gerenciamento do risco operacional para a solvência do mercado financeiro e à estreita relação existente entre tal risco e os requerimentos impostos pelo Sarbanes-Oxley, tais como o aprimoramento de controles internos contábeis e de aspectos de governança corporativa, este trabalho teve por objetivo estudar a influência das exigências da Lei americana sobre o gerenciamento do risco operacional das instituições financeiras brasileiras sujeitas à sua observância, a saber: Bradesco, Itaú e Unibanco. Para tanto foi adotado o método de procedimento comparativo, tendo sido realizado cotejo entre o marco regulatório do Comitê da Basiléia para o gerenciamento do risco operacional bancário e as exigências do Sarbanes-Oxley Act, cujo resultado revelou a existência de convergência entre ambos, pois possuem a mesma base conceitual de propósitos, qual seja, controlar os fatores de consubstanciação do risco operacional. O Sarbanes-Oxley proporciona o aperfeiçoamento dos controles internos contábeis e das práticas de governança corporativa, caracterizando-se como um instrumento adicional ao gerenciamento do risco operacional, contribuindo e complementando o marco regulatório do Comitê da Basiléia. Outrossim, o Sarbanes-Oxley propicia a redução de alocação de capital para risco operacional, pelas instituições financeiras brasileiras, haja vista seu potencial de redução à exposição ao referido risco

La divulgation d’informations sur les risques est une problématique centrale de la communication des entreprises cotées. De nombreuses dispositions réglementaires ont été mises en œuvre aux Etats-Unis et en Europe pour promouvoir la transparence sur les risques et les dispositifs de contrôle mis en place pour leur gestion. Les exigences de certification de l’efficacité de ces dispositifs conduit à la question de savoir si ou comment les entreprises non-financières françaises, ayant une double cotation aux Etats-Unis et en France, sont conformes à ces règlementations. Dans ce contexte, il est soutenu que la mise en évidence des différents niveaux de formalisation des dispositifs de contrôle des risques, à travers la communication des entreprises, permet de dégager des typologies originales de mise en conformité et de gouvernance des organisations. La démarche de recherche adoptée est basée sur l’étude de cas longitudinale qui permet de suivre les entreprises du lancement des projets de mise en conformité, à la stabilisation des processus de production de la certification des procédures de contrôle des risques. Les données recueillies (entretiens, rapports annuels) font l’objet d’une analyse de contenu à travers le COSO2. Une seconde étape est leur traitement statistique pour discriminer les réponses stratégiques dans le temps et entre entreprises. Les observations empiriques mettent en exergue différentes réponses stratégiques en fonction de deux périodes et des préoccupations économiques et stratégiques des entreprises. / Risk oriented disclosure is a central issue of listed companies communication. Many Risk-based regulations have been implemented in the US and Europe to promote transparency about risks and controls mechanisms. Under the requirements of the SOX, executives must certify the public company’s financial results (section 302) and have to issue a report on the effectiveness of the company’s internal controls over financial reporting (section 404). The increase of mandatory risk reporting leads to the question of whether or how the French non-financial companies cross-listed in the US and France are compliant with these regulations. In this context and across corporate communication, it is argued that different levels of risk control’s formalization can highlight original typology of compliance and corporate governance. This research uses a longitudinal case study in order to explore the implementation of risk control measures and the risk narrative disclosure strategies to enhance organizational legitimacy. The collected data (interviews, risk disclosures within annual reports) are subject to a content analysis through COSO2. A second step is a statistical analysis to discriminate strategic responses over the time and between companies. Empirical observations point to different strategic responses to institutional processes based on two periods as well as economic and strategic business concerns. The first phase shows that risk control process is structured in order to build the auditability of organization. While, in the second phase companies develop different strategic responses more consistent with their concerns.

壽險業作為經營風險的特許行業，承擔著穩定社會、資金的聚集和供給，以及促進經濟成長等重要功能。近年來由於低利率、匯率變動及國內外經濟環境日益惡化，保險業的本業利潤逐年降低，壽險業的經營面臨重大的挑戰。 保險公司倒閉在國外並不是新鮮事，根據統計，1978～1994年，不到20年間，全球共有648家保險公司破產。導致保險公司破產的原因很多，其中美國在2000～2001年破產的公司大部份是準備金不足；日本保險公司的破產原因則多為投資損失。此外，一些無法意料的天災及人禍之理賠，例如美國911恐怖事件以及卡翠那風災，使得各國保險公司對於企業風險管理更加重視。標準普爾信用評等公司於2006年起，正式將企業風險管理（ERM）制度列入保險業的信用評等項目，更加速保險公司執行企業風險管理的速度。目前國內保險業風險管理制度之實施，則仍屬於起步階段。 保險業屬於高度競爭及高度監理之行業，因此，如何在保持領先的競爭地位及提供優質的客戶服務的同時，亦能恪遵法令、落實內部控制制度及企業風險管理制度，進而創造出屬於自身的藍海策略，以期追求穩定持續成長的獲利，實為壽險業者必須重視的議題。 本研究探討目前保險業所面臨的風險及挑戰，分析金管會對保險公司重大裁罰之種類，並描述及探討個案公司實施內部控制、沙賓法案及企業風險管理制度之狀況與歷程，以及其可能遇到的瓶頸與障礙。本研究結果對於國內保險業實施內部控制、沙賓法案及企業風險管理的過程，可提供助益。 / Life insurance industry conducts business that requires approval from its regulatory authority. The industry provides an array of functions, such as managing risks, maintaining social stability, pooling and supplying funds, etc. In recent years, life insurance industry has faced with serious challenges due to its decreasing operating profit margin caused by low interest rates, volatility of foreign exchange rates, and deteriorating economic environment around the globe. The bankruptcy among insurance companies is nothing new over the world. There were as many as 648 companies going bankrupt during 1978 to 1994. The causes of the aforementioned bankruptcy were many. For example, Japan companies became insolvent mostly due to investment losses; those in the U.S. were caused by insufficient reserves. Huge insurance claims for unpredictable natural or man-made disasters, such as 9/11 terrorist attack, hurricane Katrina, and the subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S., have attracted most companies’ attention worldwide to “enterprise risk management (ERM)”. Hence, Standard & Poor’s started in 2006 to apply the ERM analysis to its credit rating for the insurance industry, and this measure propels insurance companies into the implementation of ERM. Nonetheless, Taiwanese insurance companies are just at the inception of ERM. Insurance industry must comply with stringent regulations while confronting keen competition. An insurance company must take a lead in competition, provide quality services to its customers, abide by regulations, and implement internal controls and ERM in an integrated fashion. In doing so, an insurance company can develop its own blue ocean strategy and maintain sustainable growth and profit. This research probes into the risks and challenges faced by Taiwan insurance industry in dealing with various risks and challenges, including the serious sanctions by the Financial Supervisory Commission. We present a case study of local life insurance company with respect to its process of integrating internal control systems, compliance to Sarbanes-Oxley Act and implementation of ERM. A number of deficiencies, bottlenecks and obstacles were identified and analyzed, followed by related suggestions. Our results provide insights and helpful suggestions to the integration of internal controls, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, and ERM for Taiwan insurance industry.

Compliance programs have grown since the early 1990s and evolved more formally into corporate institutional or enterprise-wide programs with the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Formal institutional compliance programs are emerging in colleges and universities to assist in the management of the myriad of regulations and requirements placed on them by accrediting bodies, creditors, boards, donors, grantors, and federal and state regulators. An effective compliance program provides the structure for the institution and its employees to conduct operations ethically, with integrity, and in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. The goals of this study were to identify organizational structures that assist large, public universities in effectively managing institutional compliance, the elements that shape these structures, and the benefits and limitations of those structures.

The objective of my thesis is to outline the evolution of accounting regulation. The thesis describes development of accounting, first regulation forms, emergence of double entry and present globally accepted accounting standards. In my work I enlarge the development of two well known accounting standards GAAP and IAS and their regulation. The convergence project between standard setters' bodies is elaborated as part of present development of accounting regulation. One of next titles in my thesis is the accounting harmonization process in EU as part of accounting regulation and the adoption of IAS standards by EU Commission

In an increasingly integrated global business arena, local singularities still play a crucial role in many aspects. Business ethics is affected by this duality in profound ways. Legislators have tried to provide uniform ethical guidelines for transnational companies. In this effort to streamline the ethical management of the multinational corporation, regulation could be thought of as an attempt to reduce the role of the leader. We argue that this solution mistakenly presumes a high degree of uniformity across countries. In this paper, we consider how different legal traditions can be used to explain the divergences in implementation and configuration of ethics hotlines. We find that although national regulators established a legal standard (Sarbanes Oxley Act) for global companies, significant differences exist across legal traditions, which sometimes go even deeper, to region and country specific nuances. Legal regulation may never substitute a leader in ethical matters. / Incluso en un mundo empresarial cada vez más globalizado, las singularidades locales aún desempeñan un papel crucial en muchos aspectos; por lo tanto, la ética empresarial se ve afectada por esta dualidad. El legislador ha intentado crearpautas uniformes para compañías de carácter internacional y en el marco de este esfuerzo por uniformizar la gestión ética de las empresas multinacionales, la regulación puede verse como un intento de reducir el papel del líder. Este trabajo plantea que esta solución presupone de manera errónea un alto grado de uniformidad entre países puesto que las diversas tradiciones legales pueden usarse para explicar las diferencias en implementación y configuración de las líneas éticas. A pesar de la instauración de un sistema legal al respecto (la Ley Sarbanes-Oxley) para las compañías transnacionales, aún existen diferencias importantes entre las distintas tradiciones legales, que a veces llegan a manifestarse en variaciones específicas a la región o el país. Es por esto que quizá la regulación legal no pueda llegar a sustituir al líder en temas de naturaleza ética.

沙氏法是美國在經歷一連串包括安隆、世界通訊等知名企業在內的財報不實醜聞後，為重建投資大眾對公開發行公司財報及美國證券市場的信心，迅速於2002年7月30日頒佈之一項企業革新法。綜觀其中66項條款，引發最多爭議、且對所有公司影響最大的首推404條款。該條款要求管理階層與簽證會計師評估公司與財務報導有關之內部控制制度其有效性，而爭議的重點主要在其實施方式和高遵循成本。 本研究透過個案研究，以深度訪談與問卷調查的方式，瞭解個案公司為遵循沙氏法404條款而推動之專案其組織架構與施行程序，同時蒐集公司主管及員工之意見，以分析實施效益並提出建議。 研究發現，33.34%的受訪者認同公司遵循沙氏法404條款所獲得的效益大於成本，17.34%反對，49.33%持中性看法。受訪者除認為實施沙氏法專案有助於強化同仁的風險意識、引導公司重新檢視與財務報導有關之內部控制制度，並將作業程序標準化、提升內控品質與財報可信度、遵循集團政策外，同時認為沙氏法專案有改善的空間，尤其在整合公司現有的風險控管機制、簡化測試流程及對測試文件的要求等方面。 誠如個案公司財務長所重視的“塑造企業文化”，沙氏法404條款強調的是“由上到下、以風險為基礎”，因此，樹立正確的在上位者之語調與表態極為重要，尤其是董事會、執行長和財務長，必須全力支持，建構具成本效益且符合沙氏法404條款的測試架構，以評估與財務報導有關之內部控制，進而確保財務報導之可靠性。 / After a whole series of financial scandals, such as Enron and WorldCom frauds, the US government swiftly declared the Corporate Reform Law on July 30, 2002, i.e. the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX”), aiming to restore investors’ confidence in financial statements of the public companies and the US security market, as well. Among 66 sections in total in SOX, the most contentious aspect, which has also made significant impacts on companies, is Section 404 (“SOX 404”) requiring management and the external auditors to assess the effectiveness of Internal Control over Financial Reporting (“ICFR”). The key point of contention is its stringent implementation and high compliance cost. In-depth interview and questionnaire survey methods were adopted in this case study to explore how the researched company (“the Company”) implemented its project in response to SOX 404 and then to have a detailed analysis based upon the answers and comments obtained from the interviewees and the questionnaire respondents. Suggestions are made at the end of the study. The study finds that 33.34% of the respondents agreed with the view that compliance with SOX 404 generates greater benefit than cost to the Company, while 17.34% were against it, and 49.33% remained neutral. Despite the fact that abiding by SOX may enhance the employees’ risk awareness, guide the company to reexamine its ICFR, add more credibility of financial reports, and conform to Group policy etc., both the interviewees and the respondents consider that there is room for improvement as far as SOX 404 project is concerned. For example, a full integration of the existing risk management mechanisms and also a great simplification of testing procedures and documentation requirements. Just as the CFO of the Company highlights the importance of molding enterprise culture, SOX 404 is also top-down, risk-based oriented. As a result, it is essential to set the right tone at the top. The Board of Directors, CEO, and CFO must give their full support for building a testing framework, which is cost-effective and keeps to SOX 404. By doing so, ICFR can be accurately assessed, and the reliability of financial reports can be virtually assured.

This thesis examines the current state of nonprofit museum accountability in the United Kingdom and United States, assessing methods of achieving fiscal and ethical accountability, as well as the factors that have influenced museum codes and policies to that end. The recent development of museum accountability is couched in corporate culture, government influence, and public expectations, making it an interdisciplinary concern. Yet museum professionalisation, including codes of ethics, conflict of interest management, and agreed-upon standards, has received little attention from researchers. This study engages in empirical research to assess museums’ responses to recent regulations, their execution of governance accountability, and the application of internal controls and fiscal transparency measures. These subjects appraise ethical governance and board member duties, in addition to audit practices and best practice policies. Research reveals inadequacies in the museum accountability systems in both Britain and America. As case studies serve to demonstrate, opportunities remain for financial and ethical misconduct, which can damage the public trust in museums. This thesis is the first broad empirical study to explain museum accountability in Britain or America, collating data across the entire museum sector, creating an industry-wide national framework from the quantitative and qualitative findings. No research has reported on the implementation of best practice measures according to the private, public and third sectors, stakeholders, and by the museum industry itself. Ultimately, this thesis provides unique evidence previously lacking in both the UK and US museum sectors, making it possible to posit and assess specific museums against an accurate national accountability framework.