investor confidence

Senator Paul Spyros Sarbanes in his capacity as Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, held a series of comprehensive hearings resulting in the passage of a bi-partisan bill designed to reform the accounting industry and restore the investor confidence. “The Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act” was signed into law on July 30, 2002, and has been referred to as “the most far-reaching reforms of American business.. Full Article

The government has put its act together to see that the Company Law Board (CLB), the quasi-judicial body that gives verdicts on litigation and complaints that come under the purview of the Companies Act, gets a fresh set of members soon. This is in the backdrop of the arrest of R Vasudevan, the senior most CLB member, on November 24. This has left the board with just two members to hear the pending cases that run into thousands. Full Article

These are uncertain times. The subprime mortgage crisis weighs heavily on the financial markets and it is starting to cause considerable collateral damage to the wider economy. The outlook for 2009 is bleak, and the major economies in the US and Europe can expect deep and prolonged recessions. Some asset managers have felt the full force of the downturn, as collapsing investor confidence has sparked a massive withdrawal of funds. Full Article