With the recent spate of SGX companies taking huge write down of assets and frauds still happening as frequently, it got me wondering- Does Singapore have a weak financial regulator or is it there something wrong with our accounting practises? Case 1- Noble Write Down Many of us will be aware of Noble's huge write down on its financial derivatives and the subsequent loss in shareholder value.  All these while, an independent research house, Iceberg, has been indicating that Noble had over-valued its financial derivative assets. What made it worse was that Noble's own external auditor, Ernest & Young, had for years been giving Noble the clean bill of health. While it is true the methodology is sound, the inputs/estimates Noble had given was unrealistic. This begs the question: Are our auditors really looking at the authenticity of numbers by thinking on the inputs or are senior partners just ......