Nicolas Véron

Reporting for Business Segments

On Wednesday I was invited to give a testimony before the Committee of economic and monetary affairs of the European Parliament, on whether the EU should adopt the controversial IFRS 8 standard on how companies should report the performance of their individual business segments. This sounds like a arcane technical debate, but actually illustrates quite vividly the challenges of setting accounting standards based on investors' needs.

Download EuroParl_IFRS8_Sep07.pdf to read the points I developed in my testimony.

Triple Whammy on the Credit Markets

While the turmoil in the credit markets continues to unford - with the latest episode at Northen Rock - I try to distinguish three separate drivers of the crisis: the US housing downturn, unease about banking business models, and a deeper challenge posed by insufficient risk information.

Download Tribune_070917_en.pdf to read the piece in English, and Download Tribune_070917.pdf to read it in French.

Sovereign Wealth Funds

In this morning's column in La Tribune, I ask whether current concerns about Sovereign Wealth Funds are justified. These new actors are big and likely to grow bigger, but how much danger do they really pose? My opinion: less than many commentators fear, for reasons linked to internal political constraints in the countries which establish them.

Download Tribune_070903_en.pdf to read the piece in English, and Download Tribune_070903.pdf to read it in French

Some Thoughts on the Credit Market Turmoil

In a column published by Le Journal des Finances last Saturday, I hold the view that the current market turmoil can primarily be interpreted as a crisis of risk information - similar in this to the accounting information crisis of 2001-02, when Enron and Worldcom made investors doubt the value of corporate financial statements and disclosures. How rating agencies, the main intermediaries in the chain of financial risk information, will respond to this crisis is yet uncertain.

Download JdF_070901.pdf to read the column (only in French).

Is Europe Ready for a Big Banking Crisis?

On Friday, Bruegel published a new Policy Brief in which I argue that Europe's governments should contemplate a reform of their financial stability arrangements. Recent cross-border consolidation of Europe's banks and other financial developments make it increasingly doubtful that the current nationally-anchored framework could deal with the failure of a major financial institution with large operations in several EU countries. Introducing an EU tier of supervision focused on those 'pan-European banks' appears to me the only way to restore credible crisis management capability.

I also wrote an op-ed piece for the Financial Times, with summary of the argument. It was published on 7 September and you can read it here.

Download BruegelPolicyBrief_310807.pdf to read the piece - and please let me know your comments on this blog!