Over the past couple of years, a number of U.S. and European banks have undergone so-called stress tests. These were intended to tell regulators, as well as the banks’ customers, if the banks were strong enough to withstand a persistently weak economy. While corporate America didn’t have to participate, companies could benefit from doing a similar assessment themselves, says Tom Nelson, cash management specialist with Wall Street Systems. In fact, Nelson outlined ten questions that every corporate treasurer should ask him or herself:

1. How well could your company survive a 10 percent depreciation or appreciation in your main trading currencies – namely, those in your home territory and those of your main customers and suppliers?

2. How well could your company survive a 25 percent increase in the interest rates charged on your variable rate debt? more

Forgive the dramatic headline; I want your attention because Dodd-Frank appears to be the sort of regulation that keeps on giving. Each time I post insights on one facet of the legislation, someone pings me, eager to discuss another part of the new law.

This week, David Kovel of Kirby McInerney LLP connected to weigh in on the ways in which Dodd-Frank may lead to more whistle-blowing. I want to be careful with my choice of words. I’m not saying that Dodd-Frank will necessarily stimulate more whistle-blowing.

Nor am I complaining about Dodd-Frank’s impact on companies; there’s enough belly-aching about regulatory risk making the rounds these days. To me, those complaints are akin to bemoaning bad cards at the poker table (where, I have noticed, the winners never complain about bad cards).

All publicly listed companies have to deal with Dodd-Frank. Here, Kovel offers his take on how companies may want to deal with the new law’s whistle-blower provision. more

It’s fascinating to compare the attitudes of people in different countries in the great debate about how best to reduce the mountains of public debt that have accumulated globally in the wake of the economic crisis. A couple of items that came my way today contained some real surprises. more

The Obama administration wants to require U.S. banks to report all electronic money transfers into and out of the country – an ambitious counterterrorism measure that despite its grand scale may not be as costly as you might imagine.

James H. Freis Jr., the director of the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), was perhaps first to address concerns over the cost of execution this past Monday when he characterized the requirement as bringing only a “modest cost to industry.”

With all due respect to Mr. Freis, his assessment seems hard to swallow. more