Nicolas Véron

The Global Challenge of Regulatory Competition

This morning, La Tribune, France's second-leading business daily, adopted a new format. My column will now appear slightly more frequently, once every two or three weeks instead of monthly.

Today's piece is on how global financial integration is fostering worldwide regulatory competition, a context that puts into perspective the recent headlines on stock exchange consolidation between Euronext, Deutsche Börse, and the rest.

Download Tribune_061120.pdf to read the French version of the column. Download Tribune_061120_en.pdf to read the English version

The emerging Transatlantic capital market

This article was written for Telos, a recently created online think tank (for which it was the No.100 post), in early April 2006.

In it, I argue that the emergence of a Transatlantic market for corporate securities, signalled rather than caused by stock echnage consolidation, is going to create huge challenges for regulators.

This was written just after Nasdaq acquired a 25% stake in the London Stock Exchange, and well before the heated controversies about whether the NYSE Group's bid for Euronext would lead to impose the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation on Europe's listed companies.

Download Telos_0406_en.pdf in case the above link is not functioning; and Download Telos_0406_fr.pdf for the French version.

My first text on Accounting

Download ETR_3bis.pdf to read this pamphlet, which I co-authored in September 2004 together with Philippe Crouzet, at that time the CFO of the Saint-Gobain group. It is the English translation (with a few updates) of an earlier French version, of April 2002. Both were published by En Temps Réel, a Paris-based think tank.

The French text (Download ETR_3.pdf) was my first in-depth look at financial and accounting regulatory policy issues, and I am grateful to Zaki Laïdi for having suggested the theme in the fall of 2001.

Since then, I have not stopped caring about accounting - however unlikely that may sound!

The EU and the Governance of Globalisation

In this paper prepared by Bruegel for the Finnish Presidency of the European Union, Alan Ahearne, Jean Pisani-Ferry, André Sapir and I argue that the changing global circumstances call for a comprehensive rethink of the EU's positions, where the solidity of the post-war order guaranteed by US power can no longer be taken for granted.

Download GlobalEconomicGovernance_200906.pdf if the above link is not functioning.

Response to the UK Financial Reporting Council

In the spring of 2006, the Financial Reporting Council of the UK has opened a wide consultation on the audit services that focuses on choice and on the risks resulting from the limited number of international audit firms.

In my personal response to the FRC, which was published by Bruegel in its Policy Contribution series, I argue that the current structure of the audit market entails serious problems, and that two sharply different policy approaches, which I call "firm-count" and "open-access", can be envisaged to address them.

Download BruegelPolicyContribution_4.pdf if the above link is not functioning.

Farewell National Champions

On 3 July 2006 Bruegel published this Policy Brief in which I look at the internationalisation of Europe's largets companies and compare them to their US counterparts.

One finding of its study, which is based on publicly available information in annual reports and regulatory filings, is that Europe's large companies are escaping their national home base at a breathtaking pace - with some deep implications that many policymakers have not yet realised.

Download BruegelPolicyBrief_030706.pdf if the above link is not functioning.

In 2007 I wrote a French text (Download OpinionEuropeenne_2007.pdf) based on this Policy Brief for L'Opinion Européenne, a yearly publication edited by Dominique Reynié at Sciences Po in Paris. 

Smoke & Mirrors, Inc.: Accounting for Capitalism (July 2006)

Smoke & Mirrors, Inc.: Accounting for Capitalism is a primer and thought-provoker on accounting and its role in contemporary financial systems.

It was written for accountants or non-accountants who want to understand what underlies the ever more frequent headlines about accounting and financial reporting - such as Enron and WorldCom, stock options expensing, adoption in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Europe. Cornell University Press published it in July 2006.

Download Review_FT_100906.pdf to read Barney Jopson's review in the Financial Times on 10 September 2006.

Download SmokeandMirrors_Flyer.pdf for a summary and order form. You can also buy the book on Amazon.

The book was first published in French in May 2004 by Odile Jacob. However, Smoke & Mirrors, Inc. is much more than a mere translated version, and includes comprehensive updates for the English-speaking readership.

I wrote it with two younger co-authors, Matthieu Autret and Alfred Galichon, which at the time were still studying at Ecole des Mines in Paris and had worked on a joint thesis on accounting. They contributed much to Smoke & Mirrors, Inc.: for example, the imaginary story of the company eponymous with the book's title is their idea. They have now started successful professional careers, Matthieu at the European Commission and Alfred as an economist.

My column in La Tribune, until October 2006

My column in La Tribune, France's second-leading business daily, started in March 2005, but the articles are available in English translation only form March 2006 on.

The following links are to the English versions of to all articles from March to October 2006.

Download Tribune_061009_en.pdf to read the October column, "Should Emerging Multinationals be Kept Out?", where I draw lessons from cases such as CNOOC and Unocal, Dubai Ports World and P&O, or Vneshtorgbank and EADS, to identify in which cases government actions to prevent takeovers can be considered wise, and why these cases are generally the sign of dysfunctional markets.

Download Tribune_060912_en.pdf to read the September column, "'Economic Patriotism': Lessons from Italy", where I compare the actions of successive Bank of Italy Governors Antonio Fazio and Mario Draghi and conclude that a defensive brand of patriotism is unlikely to succeed.

Download Tribune_060612_en.pdf to read the June column, "The New 'Grammar of Business'", on the new market discipline rules with which French companies must increasingly comply, taking the dismissal of Vinci's CEO Antoine Zacharias as a starting point.

Download Tribune_060509_en.pdf to read the May column, "Will Corporate Reform Stop with the Enron Trial?", on the backlash against the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the shifting climate of financial reform in the United States and Europe.

Download Tribune_060410_en.pdf to read the April column, "The False Promises of Employee Stock Ownership", on why the French government legislative attempt to build takeover defenses by fostering employee stock ownership is misguided and likely to backfire.

Download Tribune_060313_en.pdf to read the March column, "When Auditors get Audited", on insufficient financial disclosures by large audit networks about themselves.

The following links are to the French (originally published) texts:

Download Tribune_061009.pdf October 2006, on emerging multinationals

Download Tribune_060912.pdf September 2006, on the Italian banking sector

Download Tribune_060612.pdf June 2006, on market discipline in Europe

Download Tribune_060509.pdf May 2006, on financial reform in the US

Download Tribune_060410.pdf April 2006, on employee stock ownership

Download Tribune_060313.pdf March 2006, on financial disclosures by audit firms

Download Tribune_060213.pdf February 2006, on Mittal and the MIT Globalization Study

Download Tribune_060109.pdf January 2006, on France's "Virginian Syndrome"

Download Tribune_051214.pdf December 2005, on lobbying in Washington DC

Download Tribune_051107.pdf November 2005, on the listing of Electricité de France

Download Tribune_051010.pdf October 2005, on IFRS implementation in Europe

Download Tribune_050905.pdf September 2005, on France's 'Economic Patriotism'

Download Tribune_050627.pdf June 2005, on Bill Donaldson's departure from the SEC

Download Tribune_050523.pdf May 2005, on conflicts between regulators in Italy

Download Tribune_050425.pdf April 2005, on AIG and the US regulatory system

Download Tribune_050321.pdf March 2005, on stock exchange consolidation

Opening Post

On Monday, 20 November, my column in La Tribune, France's second-leading business daily, changes format and becomes more frequent. This prompted me to get rid of my clunky old personal website (www.n-veron.info) and to start this blog. I hope you will make it a lively place for the exchange of ideas on how business life is changing, and how it changes our lives. Please tell me what you think!