This month, our main interview is with Nicole-Anna de Silva FCCA, who is successfully combining both her accountancy and legal qualifications as senior corporate counsel with a multinational financial institution in the Caribbean. As de Silva says, this combination has given her both ‘left and right brain’ skills. ‘It allows me to connect better with my business partners both internally and externally.’ Find out more.
As the march of artificial intelligence continues, we report on warnings in the EU over training. In particular, we look at calls from SMEs and their advisers for additional funding to help level the playing field; big firms have the big bucks to invest while smaller accounting practices risk being left behind. And, as advisers to the economic driving force of SMEs, that could be bad news for accountants. Read the report.
While on the subject of AI, we hear from Jing Dong FCCA, a Netherlands-based finance and treasury professional who used AI to help her develop a mini-game for her 10-year-old. She has since applied the lessons learned to her professional life and, although it may not be child’s play, she sees a new blueprint emerging for finance professionals in the age of AI. Catch the comment.
Over in the US, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is looking at how it can ‘cut the clutter’ from Regulation S-K requirements. According to Paul Atkins, the SEC’s chair, the data required for US-listed company filings outside financial statements can be overly broad. Spanning human capital resources, regulatory compliance and changes to previously disclosed business strategies, these demands may need slimming, he thinks, to ‘avoid compelling the disclosure of immaterial information’. Read the slimmed-down version.
What is the final frontier for finance? The private sector is moving into space, where it faces unique financial and operational challenges. Space projects are known for their complexity, long development cycles and delayed revenue generation. These factors create unique financial and operational challenges that require specialist support to navigate successfully. Prepare for lift off.
Finally, was Shakespeare a talented bookkeeper as well as storyteller? What about this, from Hamlet: ‘That hath in it no profit but the name’? And here’s a line from Othello: ‘By debitor and creditor: this counter-caster, He, in good time, must his lieutenant be’. Although he never wrote ‘To be or not to be an accountant’, we reveal how the great bard could have been a finance professional in another life. Read more quotes.
