Hot Topics | Center for Corporate Governance

What are the key issues dominating boardroom discussions today?

New issues emerge regularly that affect business operations and demand the careful attention of boards of directors and their companies. This section provides Deloitte analyses of and commentaries about some of the current hot topics dominating boardroom discussions today.

	Turmoil in the Credit Markets: The Importance of Comprehensive and Informative Disclosures As more asset classes and business activities are affected by the credit crunch, financial statement users expect organizations to provide comprehensive and informative disclosures that accurately and fairly portray their exposures to the risks associated with the current credit environment.
	IFRS: Is your company ready for the changeover? Within the next five years, Canadian generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for publicly accountable enterprises will be replaced with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). How will this be done and how will it affect you?
	Enhanced disclosure of executive compensation Executive compensation is one of the top issues on the agendas of institutional shareholders. They are demanding improve disclosure of compensation practices and demonstrable pay for performance.
	Income Trusts: Facing the new realities The tax changes will have a profound impact on the business models of existing trusts. Boards and management must act now to set new strategies for the future.
	Fair-value Accounting in the Current Economic Environment The critics of mark-to-market accounting maintain that there is a disconnection between current market prices and the true economic values of certain investments. Supporters believe that fair value best reflects economic reality and is the information that investors want on current market values and associated credit and liquidity risks.
	CEO/CFO Certification: Boards need to take a broad perspective to fulfil the oversight responsibility for internal control Certification is a responsibility of CEOs and CFOs, but directors also have a role to play.
	XBRL: Standardizing business reporting language For corporations eager to remain on the leading edge of financial statement transparency, the time is ripe to adopt a standard description and classification system for financial data — known as taxonomies — for your public disclosures.

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