The ongoing financial crisis has revived the longstanding debate about fair value accounting. This policy contribution by Nicolas Véron argues that in times of market disruption, no accounting standards could lead to consensual outcomes, and that fair value remains better than proposed...

Nicolas Véron comments on the proposal for governance reform ('constitution review') published in May 2008 by the IASC Foundation, the private-sector body which oversees the setting of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). He emphasizes the unprecedented nature of this global...

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has conducted a public consultation on a 'roadmap' it proposed late last year to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards in America. This debate takes particular relevance as the crisis has highlighted the importance of accounting standards as...

In this paper, Nicolas Veron argues that the EU regulatory response to the crisis has been generally slower in the EU than in the United States, for four main reasons: swifter financial crisis management and resolution in the US; structural differences in legislative processes; the EU's...

This Policy Contribution reproduces the text of a letter sent by Senior Fellow Nicolas Véron to Gerrit Zalm, the Chairman of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation (IASCF) in response to the Foundation's public consultation on Part 2 of its Constitution Review. Véron...

Following the orderly British exit from the European single market in late 2020, the full impact of Brexit on the financial sector has been delayed by risk aversion in the public and private sector alike, in part related to the Covid-19 pandemic. It will take longer than many had anticipated for...

This paper documents recent structural changes in China's corporate landscape, based on company level data, providing a complementary perspective to that of official Chinese statistics. We classify China's largest companies by revenue since 2004 (based on Fortune Global 500 rankings), and...

China's rapid rise and unique economic system, and the United States' increasingly disruptive trade policy, threaten the global rules-based trade and economic system. The European Union has so far been comparatively spared from the US-China trade war, but must nevertheless safeguard its critical...

In 2020, European governments mitigated the economic impact of COVID-19 lockdowns and other pandemic-fighting programmes through a host of initiatives. These included efforts to support credit, such as guarantees for bank loans, particularly to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We...

Effective financial supervision plays a crucial role in maintaining financial stability and a healthy financial system. China's leadership has made financial risk a core priority, and in reforms approved in March 2023, it reassigned regulatory responsibilities, creating a new supervisory body...