英语论文网

由于银行业的倒闭风潮，全球经济正经历着一次金融危机的深化。在过去的十二个月中银行倒闭数量已上升至106间，但仍旧少于1992年底储蓄和贷款危机中倒闭的181间，银行倒闭造成了今年F.D.I.C（美国联邦存款保险公司）高达25亿美元的费用，预计在未来五年会在此问题上耗资千亿(Marcy Gordon AP Business October 2009)。本论文的主题与代表性、控制性和问责性相关，特别强调最近的金融动荡，并提出了相应的问题：银行该如何负起责任？会计师有什么责任？财务报表中提供了什么类型的表述？存在着什么形式的控制？

哈特菲尔德和穆尔（1938，页）指出，会计的功能是准备报表“满足利益各方信息的需要，特别是管理企业，投资者，债权人，政府在税收和监管方面等问题”。

Critically Assess Failures Of Financial Institutions

Global Economies are going through a deepening financial crisis due to banking failures. Bank failures in the last twelve months has risen to 106, but still fall short of the 181 that collapsed in 1992 at the end of the savings and loans crisis, bank failures have cost the F.D.I.C (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) a whopping $25billion this year and are expected to cost $100billion through the next five years (Marcy Gordon AP Business October 2009). This essay hopes to assess the themes of representation, control and accountability with particular emphasis on the recent financial turmoil and raise the question: where the banks accountable? Where were the accountants? What type of representation was provided in the financial statements? And what form of control existed?

Sanders Hatfield and Moore (1938, p.4) stated that the function of Accounting was to prepare statements to satisfy 'the need for information of all the parties in interest, especially management of the business, investors, creditors and government in such matter as taxation and regulation'. In a lay mans terms understandable information for everyone to use. Accounting creates a self image that is neutral to the set of techniques which passively and objectively record and represent actions of organizations and individuals.

Ijiri (1975) suggests that to account for a consequence e.g. cash balance, cash receipts and disbursements means to show the evidence that produced the result. The firm or manager must present documents that show how a financial transaction was transacted. The American Institute of accountants committee on terminology defined accounting as the act of recording classifying and summarizing in a significant manner; in terms of money, transactions and events. The classification leads to a financial character i.e. financial statement which in turn leads to results (Cited in Grady 1965 p.2). These results thus complete the process of accountability. The sociological definition of accountability states that accountability denotes the exchange of reasons for conduct, i.e. to give an account or provide reasons for one's behaviour, to explain and justify what one did or did not do. Such accounts are provided in order to render behaviour intelligible and to ''prevent conflicts from arising by verbally bridging the gap between action and expectation' (Scott & Lyman, 1968, p. 46). Accounting needs to be complemented with a situation-specific sensitivity for the ''particular other whose interests and values cannot be appropriately accounted for by a system of general rules or principles' (e.g. Lehman, 1999; Roberts, 2003; Shearer, 2002). Ijiri (1975, p.33) was of the view that current accounting practice can be better interpreted if we view accountability as an underlying goal. He explained further that unless accounting is viewed i