CPA Observation Post

Bank of America Launches CPA Financing Program (via @AccountingToday)

Bank of America has begun offering financing to CPA firms to help them fund mergers and acquisitions, expand their facilities, buy equipment and software, and other purposes. Read More>>

EU refuses to approve fair-value accounting rule

Michel Barnier, the European Union's internal-market commissioner, said officials won't yet approve a mark-to-market accounting rule that could ease banks' problems caused by the eurozone's sovereign-debt crisis. "I do not believe this will be the first solution to the problems we face in Europe at the moment," Barnier said. Read More>>

Delays implementing Dodd-Frank lead to market uncertainty (from @NYTimes)

Regulators have struggled to keep to their schedules for implementing the Dodd-Frank Act. The delays have forced banks and other market participants to deal with continued uncertainty, especially in the derivatives market. On July 16, more than 100 rules for that market are supposed to take effect, but regulators have not announced them. Read More>>

Major banks want derivatives accounting plan dropped

The Financial Accounting Standards Board proposed rules for derivatives accounting that would require companies to report on full exposure, rather than net amounts, for derivatives they carry on their balance sheets. Major banks are urging policymakers to forgo the proposed rules because they could significantly inflate their balance sheets. A report from Credit Suisse says the rule could force the largest banks to put trillions of dollars in derivatives on their balance sheets. Read More>>

NJSCPA Member named chief operating officer at Northfield Bancorp

Steven M. Klein, CPA of Howell, N.J., has been appointed chief operating officer of Northfield Bancorp, Inc.

As chief operating officer, Klein will have overall responsibility for planning, organizing and controlling the day-to-day activities of the company and the bank, and will work closely with the chairman/chief executive officer and other members of the senior management team, in the execution of the company's strategic plan.

In addition, Klein will retain his responsibilities as chief financial officer.

Klein joined Northfield as chief financial officer in March 2005. Previously, he was an audit partner with KPMG LLP, serving the community banking practices of New Jersey and Philadelphia.

He earned a bachelor of science degree in business and accounting from Montclair State University. He is a certified public accountant and member of the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and He is a member and serves on various committees of the New Jersey Bankers Association and the American Bankers Association.

Klein also serves as a trustee of the CentraState Healthcare System and as a director of the Middlesex Water Company.

FASB moves toward reversing mark-to-market proposal (from @WSJ)

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has started taking steps toward allowing banks to continue to use an amortized cost to value many of the loans on their balance sheets rather than shifting to a "fair value" accounting method. Last year, the accounting standards board had proposed expanding mark-to-market accounting on bank loans. The banking industry had argued that the fair-value rules would hinder lending. Read More>>

Boards for accounting standards undergo a changing of the guard (from @NYTimes)

The International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board are coming to the end of a long fight that has pitted them against financial institutions, regulators and lawmakers. Meanwhile, the leadership of the boards is changing, raising questions about how far the accounting boards will go to require banks to report the value of their assets based on market prices. The new leaders will also be involved in converging the boards' rules. Read More>>

FASB bank-accounting proposals face investor opposition

The Financial Accounting Standards Board's proposed bank regulations, which would make banks report the estimated fair value of most loans on their books as well as the current-cost-accounting valuations, are opposed by two-thirds of institutional investors, according to a survey by investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and Greenwich Associates. However, many of the 62 institutional investors that were polled said that accounting standards need to be revised. Read More>>

Small businesses, banks disagree on credit conditions

More than 40% of small-business owners say they have been unable to get adequate financing, according to a report by the National Small Business Association. Lenders, meanwhile, say demand has been soft and that few small businesses are creditworthy. President Barack Obama and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have called for an increase in small-business lending, and Congress is considering legislation that includes incentives for extending credit to such companies. Read More>>

Auditors Deceived, TARP Defrauded and One Little Fish is Netted

An opinion story about a bank rescue effort that went bad. A mid-level employee, Alex Yan, was jailed for embezzlement that was discovered by the bank. Relevant quote: "Yan stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from his bank, the bank turned him in, and he got sent to prison. Meanwhile, the people who ran his bank scammed the American public out of hundreds of millions of dollars and haven’t been charged by the government with anything." Read Story>>