FINANCIAL ARTICLES

The Role of Finance

The latest financial crisis which dragged the world into an economic recession has been extensively analyzed and by and large understood.

In summary, though, the combination of artificial and not well understood and wrongly rated financial products and lack of trust among financial institutes created large credit problems, sudden depreciation of assets and withdraw of capital from major banks, leading the economic world towards collapse; which obliged governments to take actions, i.e., print unprecedented amounts of money and offer guaranties, while worsening their already delicate country budgets.
Many predict we will have high inflation rates as a result.

Remarkable differencesBefore globalization there were and there still are national economies. Each country has developed and regulated its own accounting standards with remarkable differences which are a consequence of local cultures and history. For instance, the Anglo-Saxon countries are inspired by principle of seeking to report “true and fair” value of assets and liabilities and strict adherence to the matching principle. It requires judgment when applying it to not codified situations. Europe instead follows the principle of conservatism, which tends to underestimate assets and income, which can lead to substantial underestimation in certain industries. The Latin American systems include particular attention to the effects of inflation into reporting accounts. But why are Accounting Standards important?The main reason for countries to regulate...

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Does this refer to me? This note applies to individuals and holders of joint accounts who are residents of European Union (“EU") Member States. Individuals resident outside EU are generally not effected, although if you hold a passport issued by an EU Member State you should also read on. What is the European Union Savings Tax Directive (“EUSD” or “the Directive)? The EUSD is an agreement between the EU Member States to automatically exchange information with each other about customers who earn savings income in one EU Member state but reside in another. It was approved by the EU Council of Ministers on 2nd June 2003 and is came into effect on 1st July 2005. 

The Directive can be applied in two ways: Exchange of information: This means that for example, where a resident of France holds a bank account in Germany,...

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