3 Companies Finance Accounting Think Tank.

Columbia University's business school launched the center with grants from investment bank Morgan Stanley (MWD), IBM Corp. (IBM) and General Electric Co.'s (GE) GE Foundation.

The Center for Excellence in Accounting and Security Analysis, being chaired by former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) Chairman Arthur Levitt, will examine some of the same corporate governance and accounting concerns that GE, IBM and Morgan Stanley themselves have been touched by.

When asked if there would be a conflict if the findings of the center went against the commercial interests of the center's founding financers, Penman said, "That is not a concern."