Author Archives: Kathrin Katanoba

Give Women Credit: Financial Empowerment Matters

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Deep-rooted attitudes on moneyAL ARABIYA NEWS

My work led me to question the deep-rooted attitudes about money. Why is it that some women feel they don’t understand money? What stops a woman from being interested in money and managing it? It is a vicious circle.
Give women credit Financial empowerment matters

 

Ozlem Denizmen

Ozlem Denizmen

As 13th century Anatolian spiritual leader, poet and philosopher Celaleddin Rumi put it, “A candle doesn’t lose anything from its light by lighting other candles.” So ladies and gentlemen, husbands, fathers, brothers, bosses, banks, governments, everybody: give women credit! Let us light up half the population by giving them financial freedom.

 

Yellen, Lagarde a New Era for Women in Finance

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Only a few years ago, if you had randomly asked people around the world to name the woman who in their countries had the most influence in the financial sector, many millions – perhaps billions – would have been stumped. The world of finance, particularly cross-border finance, has long been dominated by men.

To some extent, it still is, given the current furor over the dearth of female attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. But as of February 1, there will be virtually no country on the planet where decisions made by one of two women are not a major factor in the financial sector.
A New Era for Women and Finance

Women and Finance

KPMG To Pay $8.2 Million To Settle SEC Charges

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KPMG will pay $8.2 million to settle allegations it broke rules that require auditors to be US Securities and Exchange Commissionindependent from clients in order to maintain objectivity and impartiality, the SEC said Friday.

Accounting firm KPMG LLP agreed to pay $8.2 million to settle allegations it broke rules that require auditors to be independent from clients to maintain objectivity and impartiality, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday.

The SEC said KPMG broke auditor independence rules by providing services such as bookkeeping and expert services to affiliates of companies whose books it was auditing. Some KPMG personnel also owned stock in companies or affiliates of companies that were KPMG audit clients, another violation, the SEC said.
KPMG To Pay $8.2 Million To Settle SEC Charges
SEC KPMG PressRelease
KPMG LLP SEC 
SEC vs KPMG Report of Investigation

KPMG

Chinese Regime: Chinese See Through Anti-Corruption Report

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Report from our China correspondent Donna Charbone:
Although an annual report by the Chinese Communist Party’s corruption-fighting agency indicates an increased crackdown on corrupt government officials in China, some experts find it deceptive and shameful.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), an anti-corruption agency, published its annual report, touting progress in anti-corruption efforts this past year. The report states that more than 182,000 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members and cadres, and state-owned enterprise executives have been investigated and punished for corruption.

The number of closed cases in 2013 increased by 12.3 percent over 2012, while the number of officials investigated increased by 13 percent. Additionally, the CCDI investigated 24,521 cases within a month and investigated 30,000 people after the 18th Congress—7,692 of which were subject to party and government disciplines.

There’s is much skepticism however.
Donna Charbone Reports:
Chinese See Through Anti-Corruption Report

Visitors look at a billboard featuring alleged corrupt Chinese Communist Party members

Women In Finance ‘Are More Likely’ To Attain Board Seats

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Gulf BusinessWomen in the finance sector can assess the immediate financial impact on a business, which raises their credibility across boards.

Women with financial backgrounds are likely to attain board seats across corporates due to their ability to assess how finance impacts a company’s growth, according to Cynthia Corby, partner at Deloitte and Touche, Middle East.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that women in finance- because they can talk about factual information and link it to strategy- and assess the immediate financial impact that things can have on the business, gives them a very credible seat in the boardroom.
Women In Finance Are More Likely To Attain Board Seats

 

Women In Finance Are More Likely’To Attain Board Seats

Leaked Records Reveal Offshore Holdings of China’s Elite

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ICIJ

 

Close relatives of China’s top leaders have held secretive offshore companies in tax havens that helped shroud the Communist elite’s wealth, a leaked cache of documents reveals.

The confidential files include details of a real estate company co-owned by current President Xi Jinping’s brother-in-law and British Virgin Islands companies set up by former Premier Wen Jiabao’s son and also by his son-in-law.
Original Report : The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists /icij.org

Note: A Chinese version of this story is available here

Leaked Records Reveal Offshore Holdings of China’s Elite/PDF

Leaked Records Reveal Offshore Holdings of Chinas Elite

Afghan Drugs to Russia: The Impact of the Connection

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Afghan Drugs to Russia: The Impact of the Connection

Russia is one of the largest markets for Afghan heroin. There are about 30,000 heroin-related deaths in Russia every year. Consequently, Russia faces some of the gravest health, socio-economic, and law enforcement challenges from Afghan narcotrafficking.

The United States has supplied the main military force in the now 12-year-long NATO deployment in Afghanistan.  During this period, the Afghan opium and heroin trafficking economy has expanded 40 times according to estimates.

Afghanistan is the source for 80-90 percent of global opium production based on their poppy cultivation.  This will likely continue to increase ahead of and after the 2014 ISAF withdrawal and U.S. drawdown.
Drugs and organized crime

Original Report:East West Institute
Afghan Narcotrafficking A Joint Threat Assessment 
Drugs And Organized Crime Are Threats For World Peace

Turkey Will Have A Free Trade Deal With Japan

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Before EU: Economy Minister

Turkey hopes to finalize free trade talks with Japan before the European Union does, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekçi has said, just days after returning from a commerce ties-enhancing East Asia visit with the prime minister.

“The EU has launched talks with Japan on a free trade agreement (FTA), which we expect to last at least four years in the slow-paced structure of the 28-member union. We will start official talks with Japan as of June 1 and hopefully finalize the talks before the EU does and sign the Japan-Turkey FTA,” the minister said Jan. 14 in his address to Turkish ambassadors who convened in Ankara for an annual conference.

Why the economy minister calls seeking a competition with other states and then calculated is with the European Union, he did not explain. But the gap in between Brussels and Ankara is growing.
Turkey will have a free trade deal with Japan before EU Economy minister

Turkey will have a free trade deal with Japan