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As if the furore in the US over expensing stock options and an investigation into the insurance industry weren't enough, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a probe last week into how companies account for pension and healthcare liabilities.

It remains the dream of many budding finance professionals. Join a corporate finance department. Become treasurer, become CFO and then, finally, make it to the post of CEO. But according to research from the Corporate Executive Board, a Washington-based corporate institute, a mere 5% of CFOs are able to make the leap. Eisha Tierney Armstrong, a research practice manager for the CFO Executive Board (a division of the Corporate Executive Board) puts relationship management at the head of any CFO's priorities, as well as the creation of a succession plan.

Over half of CFOs and treasurers believe their credit ratings are not timely enough and that more needs to be done to increase competition between them, according to a survey by the Association for Financial Professionals in the US.

A rights issue by UK life assurer Prudential has surprised investors by its inconsistency with previous statements, demonstrating the costs of poor investor relations.

As part of its liquidity management offering, Deutsche Bank is set to introduce a cross-regional USD global cash concentration facility for its corporate treasury clients. The platform will allow treasurers to move any excess funds at the end of the day from dollar accounts held in London or Frankfurt to Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas on a same day basis. The main advantages, according to Deutsche, include: same day funds availability; cover funding protection so that overdraft positions are by-passed, and; improved control and transparency. A reduction in the dependence on credit lines is also a feature, says the bank.

The Mechel Steel Group, the second largest producer of long steel in Russia with revenues of over ?2 billion ($2.5 billion), is planning to IPO in the US with hopes of raising up to $270 million. The company will offer almost 14 million of its American depositary shares for just over 40 million shares of its common stock at an exchange ratio of around one to three.

Deloitte is claiming that the demands of Sarbanes-Oxley are dissuading companies from making acquisitions as CFOs take more care over due diligence. ?Deals are taking longer as CFOs take pains to ensure that they can certify the accounts and controls of target businesses,? says Deloitte corporate finance director Simon Russell. ?Some companies are being put off certain transactions altogether.?

Economic crime cost UK businesses more than £40 billion last year ? equivalent to £100 million a day ? and the problem is getting worse, according to a report launched by business advisers and accountants, RSM Robson Rhodes.

Nordea, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Société Générale enter into corporate card alliance

An increasing number of corporate upgrades has affected the stability of Moody's corporate bond ratings, according to the rating agency. Three-hundred and twenty corporates experienced a rating action in the third quarter of 2004, compared to 248 in the same period last year ? on an annualized basis that's an increase from 18.2% to 22.6% in the share of corporates experiencing a rating action. The number of firms with excessive rating actions ? more than two rating notches ? has increased to 92 from 80 in the third quarter of last year.

The long-running debate over how US companies account for stock options took both a step forward and a step back at the latest meeting of the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

Only about 34% of board members and top executives say their companies are proficient at monitoring critical non-financial indicators of corporate performance according to a new survey conducted on behalf of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).