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Standards Board (standards + board)
Kinds of Standards Board Selected AbstractsAccounting Choices and Risk Management: SFAS No. 115 and U.S. Bank Holding Companies,CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 2 2002Leslie Hodder Abstract This paper provides evidence that regulatory contracts affect firms' accounting choices and risk-management decisions. Specifically, we investigate whether an exogenous shock to regulatory risk induced by Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 115, "Accounting for Certain Investments in Debt and Equity Securities" (SFAS 1993), encouraged U.S. banks to deviate from portfolio and risk benchmarks when they adopted the standard. Because we cannot observe relevant benchmarks, we model portfolio and risk decisions as functions of macroeconomic and firm-specific factors using data from a period when regulatory capital was immune to SFAS No. 115 accounting. We examine a sample of 230 publicly traded banks and find that (1) irrespective of adoption timing, banks classified too few securities available for sale (AFS) relative to estimated benchmarks; (2) weaker banks that adopted the standard early classified far more securities as AFS relative to benchmarks; (3) banks altered the size of their securities portfolios along with the levels of interest-rate risk and credit risk as regulatory capital decreased; and (4) the level of interest-rate risk on banks' loan portfolios increased at the time of SFAS No. 115 adoption. We also explore the 1995 Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) amnesty when firms could "readopt" SFAS No. 115. We find that banks used the 1995 FASB amnesty to undo strategic initial SFAS No. 115 adoption decisions. Taken together, our findings suggest that SFAS No. 115 caused some of the accounting and economic consequences predicted by bankers, analysts, and academics. [source] Knowledge Acquisition and Memory Effects Involving an Expert System Designed as a Learning Tool for Internal Control Assessment*DECISION SCIENCES JOURNAL OF INNOVATIVE EDUCATION, Issue 1 2003Mary Jane Lenard ABSTRACT The assessment of internal control is a consideration in all financial statement audits, as stressed by the Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 78. According to this statement, "the auditor should obtain an understanding of internal control sufficient to plan the audit" (Accounting Standards Board, 1995, p. 1). Therefore, an accounting student will progress through the auditing course with the responsibility of learning how and why internal controls are assessed. Research in expert systems applied to auditing has shown that there is strong support for the constructive dialogue used in expert systems as a means of encouraging their use in decision making (Eining, Jones, & Loebbecke, 1997). The purpose of this study is to provide the student or novice auditor with a method for developing a more comprehensive understanding of internal controls and the use of internal controls in audit planning. The results of the study reinforce previous findings that novices do better when an expert system applies analogies along with declarative explanations, and clarifies the length of time in which the use of active learning in a training system can provide an improvement to declarative knowledge, but procedural knowledge must be acquired over a longer time frame. [source] Goodwill impairment as a reflection of investment opportunitiesACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 1 2009Jayne M. Godfrey M41; C21; D23 Abstract We exploit a unique opportunity to examine whether goodwill impairment write-offs reflect firms' investment opportunities during the first years of the US goodwill impairment accounting regime. We find that impairment write-offs are negatively associated with firms' underlying investment opportunities. We also find associations between goodwill impairment write-offs and traditionally applied leverage, firm size and return on assets variables, although the leverage and firm size results are less robust. The results support the International Accounting Standards Board and Financial Accounting Standards Board contention that an impairment test regime can reflect firms' underlying economic attributes, while simultaneously indicating that managers use discretion to reduce contracting costs. [source] Tribute to Professor Michael GibbinsACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVES, Issue 1 2009Karim Jamal ABSTRACT On May 2-3, 2008, the Alberta School of Business and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta (ICAA) sponsored a dinner and a one-day research workshop in Professor Michael Gibbins's honor. At the dinner on May 2, three presentations were made on the contribution of Professor Gibbins to accounting education, research, and the profession. At the research workshop on May 3, three research papers were presented, a panel discussed professional judgment issues in accounting and auditing, and a CFO gave a luncheon speech on the new financial presentation project of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. The dinner and symposium attracted participants from across Canada, the United States, Australia, and Singapore, which is not surprising given Professor Gibbins's global reputation. This paper summarizes the presentations and discussion that took place during the May 2 dinner and May 3 research workshop. [source] International Financial Reporting Standards Are Coming: Are You Ready?,/LES NORMES D'INFORMATION FINANCIÈRE INTERNATIONALES ARRIVENT: PRÊTS À LA CONVERSION?ACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVES, Issue 1 2008Peter Martin ABSTRACT In June 2006, shortly after the Accounting Standards Board (AcSB) announced that Canada would be adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the Canadian Academic Accounting Association sponsored a session entitled "International Financial Reporting Standards Are Coming: Are You Ready?" and invited presentations on the topic by representatives of the AcSB, practitioners, and academics with diverse teaching and research perspectives. The session included an overview of the anticipated challenges arising from the AcSB's strategy for the adoption of IFRS in Canada for the business community and the implications for accounting education and research. This paper summarizes the presentations at the forum. RÉSUMÉ En juin 2006, peu après que le Conseil des normes comptables (CNC) ait annoncé l'adoption par le Canada des normes d'information financière internationales (IFRS), l'Association canadienne des professeurs de comptabilité tenait un colloque ayant pour thème le degré de préparation des intéressés aux normes d'information financière internationales et sollicitait des exposés sur le sujet auprès des représentants du CNC, des praticiens et des professeurs, envisageant la question sous les divers angles de l'enseignement et de la recherche. Le colloque comportait un tour d'horizon des défis que supposera pour les entreprises la stratégie d'adoption des IFRS proposée par le CNC au Canada et des conséquences qui en découleront pour la formation et la recherche en comptabilité. Le présent article contient un résumé des exposés présentés à l'occasion de ce forum. [source] The Life and Death of the Canadian Contingent Gains and Losses Accounting Standards Project,ACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVES, Issue 1 2004BROCK DYKEMAN ABSTRACT In April 1994, the Canadian Accounting Standards Board formally approved a new accounting standard for contingent gains and losses. The new standard would have increased the frequency of recording contingent losses, enabled the accrual of some contingent gains, and enhanced disclosures for all contingencies. The changes would primarily have been achieved by requiring management, and their legal advisers, to make predictions, estimates, and disclosures that the existing accounting standard enabled them to avoid. Over two years later, and following numerous changes to the implementation date, the board ultimately decided not to release the new standard, and in July 1999, formally abandoned the contingencies project. This study provides a telling of the standard's genesis, development, and ultimate demise, which should prove instructive to those parties with an interest and a stake in accounting standard setting. [source] Commentary: An International Comparison and Evaluation of Financial Accounting Concepts Statements,ACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVES, Issue 2 2002WILLIAM R. SCOTT ABSTRACT Standard setters in several jurisdictions have adopted statements of financial accounting concepts. Given that concepts statements influence accounting standards, similarities and differences of concepts across jurisdictions will affect the ability of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and other accounting bodies to secure standards convergence. This paper analyzes the concepts statements of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the IASB. Although these statements seem similar at a "broad brush" level, a closer look reveals substantial differences. The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate these differences and the extent to which they may impair standards convergence. The paper also proposes broadening the scope of the concepts structure to include normative agency-theoretic considerations, which would bring the legitimate interests of management into the concepts structure, with the potential to move some of the trade-offs necessary to secure managers' acceptance of accounting standards into the structure itself. [source] Audit Reports on Financial Statements Prepared According to IASB Standards: Empirical Evidence from the European UnionINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AUDITING, Issue 3 2004Maria A. Garcia-Benau This paper examines the audit report of 147 firms from the European Union that prepare their financial statements in compliance with the standards developed by the International Accounting Standards Board. Bearing in mind that the consolidated accounts of listed companies will follow IAS from 2005 onwards, the purpose of this paper is to provide some insight into the current outcome of the statutory audit on this information. Interesting conclusions are drawn from this empirical study with regard to the auditing standards applied, the wording used and the differences observed between reports produced by auditors from the big firms and reports from different European countries. The need to harmonise the auditing field is discussed under the results obtained, with the final aim to contribute to the standard-setting debate on the creation of a high quality financial reporting system in the European Union. [source] Auditor Independence: A Comparative Descriptive Study of the UK, France and ItalyINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AUDITING, Issue 2 2002Joanna E. Stevenson The independence of the external auditor has long been a subject of great debate, particularly by UK and US interested parties. With the growth and globalisation of the large multi-disciplinary firms, it has again been pushed to the fore: new ethical guidance issued by international bodies such as La Fédération des Experts- Comptables Européens (FEE) and The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the activities of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Independence Standards Board in the US have encouraged a wider consideration of the issue. In Europe, the European Commission has issued a Consultative Paper containing fundamental principles for adoption into Member States' own regulation on statutory auditor independence. Increasing pressure for the removal of obstacles to a single European audit market have resulted in safeguards of auditor independence in some countries being described as undesirable barriers. This paper considers the issue of statutory auditor independence across three EU Member States: the UK, France and Italy, by comparing the ethical guides and the legal and professional regulations in place, highlighting and discussing areas of divergence, and contrasting them with the EC's Consultative Paper. It takes into account factors such as culture and the historical development of auditing in order to explore the differences found. The paper demonstrates that positions taken in France and Italy on the issue of auditor independence differ markedly from that taken by the UK profession. Of the three countries reviewed, the UK viewpoint has most obviously influenced the drafting of the EC Paper. The implications of these variances for EU harmonisation are discussed, and the paper concludes that there is a clear need for empirical study of this important issue in Europe to better understand the reasons for differing perceptions and attitudes, and the repercussions of these differences on the process of European audit harmonisation. [source] A conceptual framework and belief-function approach to assessing overall information qualityINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 1 2003Matthew Bovee We develop an information quality model based on a user-centric view adapted from Financial Accounting Standards Board,1 Wang et al.,2 and Wang and Strong.3 The model consists of four essential attributes (or assertions): accessibility, interpretability, relevance, and integrity. Four subattributes lead to an evaluation of integrity: accuracy, completeness, consistency, and existence. These subattributes relating to integrity are intrinsic in nature and relate to the process of how the information was created and the first three attributes: (accessibility, interpretability, and relevance) are extrinsic in nature. We present our model as an evidential network under the belief-function framework to permit user assessment of quality parameters. Two algorithms for combining assessments into an overall IQ measure are explored, and examples in the domain of medical information are used to illustrate key concepts. We discuss two scenarios, online user and assurance provider, which reflect two likely and important aspects of IQ evaluation currently facing information users,concerns about the impact of poor quality online information and the need for IQ assurance. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Altering Investment Decisions to Manage Financial Reporting Outcomes: Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Conduits and FIN 46JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 5 2008DANIEL A. BENS ABSTRACT We evaluate the manner in which sponsors of highly leveraged asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) conduits responded to Financial Accounting Standards Board Interpretation No. 46 (FIN 46), Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities an Interpretation of ARB No. 51, and its Canadian counterpart Accounting Standards Board of Accounting Guideline 15 (AcG-15), Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities. By matching commercial paper investors with corporations seeking liquidity, ABCP sponsors facilitate a significant amount of short-term, securitized financing in the United States. FIN 46 and AcG-15 require sponsors to consolidate their ABCP conduits with their financial statements. We demonstrate that the volume of ABCP began to decline when FIN 46 was first proposed, and that this decline is primarily attributable to a reduction in North American banks' sponsorship of ABCP. We also demonstrate that North American banks entered into costly restructuring arrangements to avoid having to consolidate their conduits per the new accounting standards. Our results suggest that, in certain settings, accounting standards appear to have real effects on investment activity and product-market competition. [source] Another step toward global convergenceJOURNAL OF CORPORATE ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 6 2008Kang Cheng The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board have worked together to develop a single set of accounting standards for business combinations. It will make things easier for corporate finance and accounting professionals when dealing with domestic versus international acquisitions. However, at first glance, the new FASB standard looks like a total revision of SFAS No. 141. What are the latest changes? © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Relative Value Relevance of Alternative Accounting Treatments for Unrealized Gains: Implications for the IASBJOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT & ACCOUNTING, Issue 3 2006Stephen Owusu-Ansah We investigate the relative value relevance of the alternative accounting methods for unrealized gains on investment properties in New Zealand (NZ). Using both the Likelihood-ratio test and the F -test, we find that, while preferred by the NZ standard setter, recognition of unrealized gains in the income statement is not superior to (or significantly different from) recognition of unrealized gains in revaluation reserve in terms of their value relevance. The results are robust to the different research methods we used. Our results have implications for the International Accounting Standards Board in terms of: (i) recognizing changes in fair values of investment properties in the income statement under the revised IAS 40: Investment Property in countries where "realization" refers to net income available for distribution; (ii) its intent to issue a standard on a single statement of comprehensive income; and (iii) its initiative to reduce or eliminate alternative accounting treatments for similar fact situations in its standards. [source] Fast cars, fast food, and fast fixes: industry responses to current ethical dilemmas for Australian advertisersJOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2007Sandra C. Jones This paper reviews three ethical dilemmas currently facing advertisers for cars, fast food and pharmaceuticals in the U.S., U.K. and Australia, and discusses Australian industry responses to these dilemmas. In Australia, as in the U.S. and U.K., the main response mechanism for advertisers has been the introduction of self-regulatory codes of practice. It is important to note that in a number of cases there is no conclusive evidence of the argued harm from advertising that is subsequently banned or regulated. A review of the general and trade press, and the records of the Australian Advertising Standards Board, finds that industry responses tend to be based on industry rather than community concerns, with the primary motive being to avoid deleterious outcomes for the industry rather than for society as a whole. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Accrual Budgeting: Accounting Treatment of Key Public Sector Items and Implications for Fiscal PolicyPUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 2 2006CARIDAD MARTÍ Budgeting in accrual terms is one of the most controversial issues in public sector accounting. In this paper, we analyze the accounting treatment of problematic elements of the financial statements when introducing accrual budgeting, and discuss the effects of the analyzed accounting alternatives on fiscal policy. We focus on three pioneer countries in the implementation of accrual budgeting and accounting: the United Kingdom, Sweden, and New Zealand. The accounting standards of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board, the European System of Accounts, and the Government Finance Statistics Manual of the International Monetary Fund are taken as benchmarks. [source] The Why and How of the New Capital Asset Reporting RequirementsPUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 3 2001Terry K. Patton New requirements for reporting capital assets associated with the governmental funds of state and local governments are among the most significant changes that will be required by Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement No. 34. Under Statement No. 34, the historical cost of these assets, including general infrastructure assets (for example, roads and bridges), must be reported in the government-wide Statement of Net Assets. The cost of using those assets,generally depreciation expense,must be reported in the government-wide Statement of Activities. This article explores why the GASB established these requirements and how it worked with preparers and others to make meeting these requirements less costly. [source] Implications of GASB's New Reporting Model for Municipal Bond Analysts and ManagersPUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 3 2001Earl R. Wilson This article explores the implications of the new Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement No. 34 reporting model for municipal bond analysts and managers. Bond analysts and state and local government managers have overlapping objectives for the use of governmental financial information, but managers also face the costly task of implementing the new model. The new and improved financial information provided by the new reporting model will permit users of the information to better understand a government's long-term and short-term financial position and changes in financial position. The new model also has important ramifications for evaluating performance, particularly regarding the reporting of net costs for each program or function. [source] Commentary: IFRS and the Domestic Standard Setter , Is the Mourning Period Over?AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 3 2010Kevin M. Stevenson The introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has changed but not lessened the roles of domestic standard setters. After a grieving period, they are now coming to realise that they have fundamental roles supporting international standard setters and ongoing roles in the public and not-for-profit sectors. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has focused on for-profit reporting, and the International Public Sector Standards Board (IPSASB) is a developing standard setter in the public sector. Domestic standard setters can help fill the gaps, support the development of the international standard setters and assist at the coalface when standards are applied. [source] The IASB Agenda , A Moving TargetAUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 42 2007WOLFGANG DICK This paper reviews the agenda of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the opportunities for research that it provides. The paper analyses the progress of topics on the 2001 agenda and concludes that evolution is variable, partly due to the appearance of later priorities. It goes on to discuss how research may inform standard-setting and analyses how major projects currently on the agenda lend themselves to academic research. [source] The Australian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board after the Implementation of CLERP 9AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 42 2007CHRISTINE JUBS This paper traces the establishment of the reconstituted Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AUASB) as a result of the CLERP (Audit Reform and Corporate Disclosure) Act 2004, and its progress in developing auditing standards that are "in the public interest". The paper canvasses the composition of the AUASB, its transparency and due process, its relationship with the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board and the Financial Reporting Council, and its resourcing and attitude to researching issues of importance in auditing. The paper discusses methods that might be used to provide evidence of the efficacy of the reforms to auditing standard-setting. [source] Commentary: Has Australia (or Any Other Jurisdiction) ,Adopted' IFRS?1AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 2 2010Stephen A. Zeff This paper replies to a statement made in this journal that ,Australia definitely adopts IFRSs'. We analyse and compare the several methods that jurisdictions can use to implement International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). These include adopting the International Accounting Standards Board's (IASB) process of setting standards, as well as various forms of standard-by-standard implementation. We conclude that the Australian method of implementation is different in major ways from those used in such countries as Israel and South Africa, which involve adopting the IASB's process. By contrast, Australia follows a multi-step process of enrolling each new standard into a category still entitled ,Australian Accounting Standards'. To refer to the Australian method as ,adoption' of IFRS might therefore mislead, even though Australian companies eventually comply with IFRS. [source] |