In last Thursday's New York Times, Floyd Norris began his "High & Low Finance" column by amplifying the question, "Did accounting help cause the financial crisis?" According to Norris, the big banks were able to get their way when it came to accounting standards by engaging in what he refers to as "regulatory arbitrage," whereby they would apply influence "from one regulator to another to seek more lenient treatment."

The Department of Justice is stepping up its enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which means companies need to take a close look at their compliance efforts. In this post, blogger Chris McKittrick provides a thorough intro into effective FCPA compliance management.

You can't buy a comprehensive GRC solution today, but the individual pieces are growing increasingly important to CFOs and controllers.

Three reasons why America may want to reconsider having a single set of accounting standards worldwide: innovation, independence, and influence. According to Professor Karthik Ramanna of Harvard Business School, all three will suffer under a single set of standards.

If you're working on continuous controls monitoring, this 16-page case study from the Center for Continuous Auditing is a must-read. The paper takes a close look at Talecris Biotherapeutics' continuous controls monitoring program and includes a helpful listing of all the controls tests that were conducted.

There have been interesting developments in risk management lately, as evidenced by one new book and one new standard. The standard is ISO 31000, which GRC analyst Michael Rasmussen lauds for its "simplicity and adaptability." The book is Harvard-trained economist and strategist Mia de Kuijper's Profit Power Economics, which shows how a business can better control profits while -- and by -- spreading the risks.

A new OpenPages survey shows that IT risk management practices are moving in a promising direction. Sixty-six percent of respondents reported that their employees can speak openly about IT risk and 80 percent indicated that their IT environment is well-maintained and that they have a business continuity plan in place.

The Society of Actuaries (SOA) has announced the launch of a global risk management designation, the Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst or CERA. The designation will initially be awarded in 12 countries, including many of the major world economies, and will incorporate the name of the CERA qualification currently issued by the SOA in the United States.

All companies must take risks to survive, and the most successful companies are those that actively integrate risk management into their decision-making processes. This white paper explains how a risk management program can help identify opportunities for value creation while also protecting against potential threats.

When it comes to tracking the success of your company's business performance applications, what you don't see can hurt you. In this on-demand webcast, you'll hear how performance management technology is capable of eliminating costly BPM blind spots. We'll reveal the findings of a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting that examined the potential return on investment that enterprises may realize by deploying Tagetik 3.0 performance management software.