The worldwide insurance industry may be worth more than you think. Industry analysts believe that reporting isn't as consistent as it could be, and that improvements to insurance financial reporting would pump up those stock prices.

PricewaterhouseCoopers interviewed more than 40 investment professionals from the U.S., Asia and Europe, finding that dissatisfaction with insurance financial reporting was widespread. They'd like to see the International Accounting Standards Board and Financial Accounting Standards Board build a better mousetrap for the industry.

Continue reading Better reporting standards could hike insurance stock prices

Better reporting standards could hike insurance stock prices originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As if investors do not have enough to worry about, along comes another problem. There is a growing movement to allow, perhaps eventually require, American companies and foreign companies trading in ADRs, to keep their books according to International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS, instead of the venerable GAAP method we all know and love.

The move to IFRS makes a fair amount of sense given the global nature of capital markets. American investors will simply have to learn to read a balance sheet constructed using different rules. The problem looming on the horizon is, who will construct the IFRS balance sheets?

Continue reading GAAP vs. IFRS: New accounting rules could mean trouble

GAAP vs. IFRS: New accounting rules could mean trouble originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.