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To: Les H who wrote (179766)	7/14/2002 10:14:44 PM
From: Giordano Bruno	Respond to of 436258

I suppose that's good./eom

To: Les H who wrote (179766)	7/14/2002 11:13:50 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Push for US to adopt international standards United States corporate scandals are making many analysts look favourably on more reliable financial data provided by European firms. But while the question of trust has become paramount, commentators say there are also key differences in standards that need to be resolved. Behind the seeming coherence of the financial language used by analysts and the media lie serious differences in US and European bookkeeping. The president of French stockmarket regulator Commission des Operations de Bourse (COB), Michael Prada, said: "We are speaking different, nationally-based languages, while our operations are transnational. It becomes incomprehensible." Tom Cross Brown, the head of ABN Amro Asset Management, said the multiplicity of systems meant market analysts were now faced with "16 or 17" accounting methods. While US firms have been reluctant to adopt international norms, the European Union and countries such as Japan have adopted the International Accounting Standards (IAS). Societe Generale de Belgique deputy chairman Etienne Davignon, co-chairman of the EU-Japan committee on accounting standards, said the move puts pressure on the United States to follow suit. "It is now of course more difficult for US authorities to say they don't accept our system because theirs was so marvellous," Mr Davignon said. For French media giant Vivendi Universal, the adoption of the US accounting standards at the start of the year was seen as the firm coming to grips with 21st-century business practice. But COB, which launched an investigation into Vivendi's records on Tuesday, now suspects the company may have used US practices to dress up its accounting records and make revenue projections rosier. European regulations are being touted as more disciplined - and more protective of investors. The quality of financial information is "surely better in Europe" than in the US, French Finance Minister Francis Mer told Les Echos newspaper last week. But Europeans continue to lobby for coherent and standardised rules and accounting practices. Frits Bolkestein, the European Commissioner for internal markets, has pleaded the cause of more global alignment before his US counterparts several times. "All of the companies must use international norms [IAS] before 2005," emphasising that EU alignment was already taking place