Economic recovery and global convergence of accounting rules rank among the top 10 challenges for 2011 by Financial Executives International.
The top 10 challenges listed by Marie Hollein, FEI president and CEO, and FEI staff came from FEI members, including CFOs, treasurers, controllers, and other senior finance executives.
Among the issues was concern that the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, enacted in July, would hinder economic growth. “To this end, financial executives should be concerned, for example, with guiding regulators toward maintaining exemptions for corporate end users utilizing derivatives products to effectively manage business risk,” according to an FEI statement.
On convergence of accounting rules by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board, FEI said executives “are waiting for” the SEC’s “next steps on whether or not it will permit” the use of international standards for U.S. publicly traded companies, according to the statement. “Another factor will be on transition and effective dates on key standards, which will determine how soon companies have to be prepared to report under the new standards — a challenge for companies.”
On climate change, the FEI statement said, “Financial executives should also be aware of the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule-making process on the monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions.”
FEI, which provides advocacy on financial issues and offers networking for its 15,000 members, didn’t rank the issues in any particular order.
