The Corporate Cleanup Goes Global: But not all reforms will follow the U.S. model

For decades, U.S. executives and powerful fund managers have lectured the Europeans and Japanese about the need to run their corporations according to the transparent U.S. model. Now come the Enron and Arthur Andersen scandals, together with less sordid disclosures about questionable accounting prac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bloomberg businessweek (Online) 2002-05 (3781), p.80
Main Author: John Rossant in Paris, with Jack Ewing in Frankfurt, Brian Bremner in Tokyo, and bureaus reports
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountability
Corporate governance
International
Investment advisors
Reforms
Special purpose entities
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:For decades, U.S. executives and powerful fund managers have lectured the Europeans and Japanese about the need to run their corporations according to the transparent U.S. model. Now come the Enron and Arthur Andersen scandals, together with less sordid disclosures about questionable accounting practices at dot-coms, telecoms, and even blue chips such as General Electric and IBM. Shareholder deception, supine boards, and Special Purpose Entities seem to have rendered the U.S. corporate governance model a Swiss cheese of loopholes. With the benchmark looking so rotten, will reform around the world stop dead in its tracks? Do not count on it. If anything, the trend to adopt U.S.-style accountability standards is stronger - one result of globalization and the stampede to U.S. markets by investors looking for decent returns.
ISSN:0007-7135
2162-657X