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International Financial Reporting Standards (international + financial_reporting_standards)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	100%

Selected Abstracts

Mandatory Adoption of IASB Standards: Value Relevance and Country-Specific Factors

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 2 2009
Ana Isabel Morais
The objective of this study is to investigate if the value relevance of European-listed companies increased after the mandatory application of International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and how the value relevance of accounting information prepared under IAS/IFRS is shaped by the specific factors of the country in which companies are domiciled. Results show that the value relevance of financial information during the period companies applied mandatory IAS/IFRS is higher than for the period during which they applied local accounting standards. We also found that countries where accounting and tax are clearly separated show more relevant accounting information. Finally, we found that companies from countries with more legal and public enforcement mechanisms disclose less relevant accounting information under IAS/IFRS. [source]

Corporate communication of financial risk

ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 2 2010
Grantley Taylor
M49 Abstract This study provides insights on the Financial Risk Management Disclosure (FRMD) patterns of Australian listed resource companies for the 2002,2006 period leading up to and immediately following adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Regression analysis demonstrates that corporate governance and capital raisings of firms are significant and positively associated with FRMD patterns. In contrast, overseas stock exchange listing of firms is significantly negatively associated with FRMD patterns. The findings show that the introduction of IFRS changes corporation's willingness to communicate risk information. [source]

A Proposal for Teaching Introductory and Intermediate Accounting in an Environment of International Financial Reporting Standards and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles for Private Enterprises,

ACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVES, Issue 1 2010
FRED PRIES
comptabilité générale; enseignement; IFRS Abstract Teaching introductory and intermediate financial accounting in an environment of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) and generally accepted accounting principles for private enterprises (GAAP for PEs) is an issue facing faculty at Canadian universities and colleges. We present a number of options and then propose an approach that we believe provides a balanced treatment of accounting standards for both publicly accountable and private enterprises. This approach focuses on the concepts and principles that are common to both IFRS and GAAP for PEs. We argue that this approach encourages deep learning resulting in students' better understanding of accounting standards and their application. Proposition d'enseignement de la comptabilitéélémentaire et intermédiaire dans un contexte de normes internationales d'information financière et de principes comptables généralement reconnus pour les entreprises à capital fermé Résumé L'enseignement de la comptabilité générale élémentaire et intermédiaire dans le contexte des IFRS et des PCGR pour les entreprises à capital fermé est problématique pour les professeurs des universités et des collèges canadiens. Les auteurs exposent différentes options et proposent ensuite une approche qui offre, selon eux, un traitement équilibré des normes comptables pour les entreprises ayant une obligation d'information du public ainsi que les entreprises à capital fermé. Cette approche est axée sur les notions et les principes que partagent les IFRS et les PCGR pour les entreprises à capital fermé. Selon les auteurs, elle favorise un apprentissage en profondeur permettant aux étudiants de mieux comprendre les normes comptables et leur application. [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 2008
Peter 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]

IT: What's the impact of IFRS?

JOURNAL OF CORPORATE ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 5 2010
Royce D. Burnett
Everyone is anticipating the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) in the United States. But companies are slowly beginning to realize that conversion to IFRSs will require some complicated, far-reaching changes for firms' information technology (IT) systems. In fact, this may be more costly and disruptive than Y2K and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act combined! Senior managers will need a solid understanding of IFRSs and a workable plan to deal with the conversion process for IT. This article provides guidance for both those challenges. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Navigating with the IFRS convergence roadmap

JOURNAL OF CORPORATE ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 6 2009
Kang Cheng
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been moving toward letting U.S. firms prepare financial statements using International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), "converging" U.S. and international reporting standards. Even firms not otherwise involved in international trade may have to follow IFRSs. The author takes a close look at the SEC's proposed convergence road map, discusses the possible effects of IFRS convergence, pinpoints issues and concerns, and examines strategies to handle the changes ahead. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

The Role of International Financial Reporting Standards in Accounting Quality: Evidence from the European Union

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT & ACCOUNTING, Issue 3 2010
Huifa Chen
Previous studies on the effect of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on accounting quality often have difficulties to control for confounding factors on accounting quality. As a result, the observed changes in accounting quality could not be attributed mainly to IFRS. We use a unique research setting to address this issue by comparing the accounting quality of publicly listed companies in 15 member states of the European Union (EU) before and after the full adoption of IFRS in 2005. We use five indicators as proxies for accounting quality. We find that the majority of accounting quality indicators improved after IFRS adoption in the EU. That is, there is less of managing earnings toward a target, a lower magnitude of absolute discretionary accruals, and higher accruals quality. But our results also show that firms engage in more earnings smoothing and recognize large losses in a less timely manner in post-IFRS periods. In addition, we examine the effects of institutional variables on financial reporting quality. Our contribution to the literature is that we show the improved accounting quality is attributable to IFRS, rather than changes in managerial incentives, institutional features of capital markets, and general business environment, etc. [source]

Does the Capitalization of Development Costs Improve Analyst Forecast Accuracy?

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT & ACCOUNTING, Issue 1 2010
Evidence from the UK
It has been documented that investments in Research and Development (R&D) are associated with increased errors and inaccuracy in earnings forecasts made by financial analysts. These deficiencies have been generally attributed to information complexity and the uncertainty of the future benefits of R&D. This paper examines whether the capitalization of development costs can reduce analyst uncertainty about the future economic outcome of R&D investments, provide outsiders with a better matching of future R&D-related revenues and costs, and therefore promote accuracy in analyst forecasts. UK data is used, because accounting rules in the United Kingdom permitted firms to conditionally capitalize development costs even before the introduction of the International Financial Reporting Standards. The choice to expense R&D rather than conditionally capitalize development costs is found to relate positively to signed analyst forecast errors. This finding is robust to controlling for the influence of other factors that may affect errors, as well as for the influence of R&D investments on forecast errors. The decision to capitalize versus expense is not observed to have a significant influence on analyst forecast revisions. The findings are interpreted as evidence that the choice to capitalize as opposed to expense may help to reduce deficiencies in analyst forecasts; hence, is informative for users of financial statements. Increased informativeness is expected to have repercussions for the effectiveness with which analysts produce earnings forecasts, and, as a result, market efficiency. [source]

Commentary: IFRS and the Domestic Standard Setter , Is the Mourning Period Over?

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 3 2010
Kevin 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]

Commentary: Has Australia (or Any Other Jurisdiction) ,Adopted' IFRS?1

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 2 2010
Stephen 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]

Discount Rates in Disarray: Evidence on Flawed Goodwill Impairment Testing

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 4 2009
Tyrone M. Carlin
Discount rate selection represents a centrally material factor impacting valuation models. Given the strong reliance on discounted cash flow modelling as a basis for determining an asset's recoverable amount, the judgement exercised by reporting entities regarding rate selection is of paramount importance in influencing the outcomes of the impairment testing process conducted under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The discretion surrounding rate selection could be used opportunistically to avoid or manage the timing of impairment losses to the detriment of transparency, comparability and decision usefulness. This study provides evidence consistent with the opportunism on the part of financial statement preparers, by demonstrating the existence of variances between independently generated risk-adjusted discount rates and those disclosed as having been used by a sample of large listed Australian companies. [source]

Discount Rates in Disarray: Evidence on Flawed Goodwill Impairment Testing

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 4 2009
Gerry Gallery
Carlin and Finch, this issue, compare goodwill impairment discount rates used by a sample of large Australian firms with ,independently' generated discount rates. Their objective is to empirically determine whether managers opportunistically select goodwill discount rates subsequent to the 2005 introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Australia. This is a worthwhile objective given that IFRS introduced an impairment regime, and within this regime, discount rate selection plays a key role in goodwill valuation decisions. It is also timely to consider the goodwill valuation issue. Following the recent downturn in the economy, there is a high probability that many firms will be forced to write down impaired goodwill arising from boom period acquisitions. Hence, evidence of bias in rate selection is likely to be of major concern to investors, policymakers and corporate regulators. Carlin and Finch claim their findings provide evidence of such bias. In this commentary I review the validity of their claims. [source]

Fifty-seven Curious Defects in Haswell and Langfield-Smith (2008): A Comment

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 4 2008
Michael E. Bradbury
Haswell and Langfield-Smith (2008)(HLS) catalogue 57 ,serious defects' in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and conclude that IFRS dilute pre-IFRS Australian accounting standards. They question the adoption of the Australian IFRS protocol. I review each of their 57 ,serious defects' and classify them as (1) where the defect existed in pre-IFRS Australian standards; (2) where the defect is trivial rather than serious; or (3) where HLS ignore the possibility of alternative explanations. In most cases the alternative explanations can be found in IFRS and, unlike the arguments of HLS, have been through process. Alternatively the argument provided by HLS had been through due process and discarded. I conclude that HLS is neither a serious empirical study nor a well-reasoned a priori analysis. It is simply a catalogue of personal assertions. The conclusions they reach on IFRS are not possible from evidence they provide. [source]

The ,NZ' in ,NZ IFRS': Public Benefit Entity Amendments

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 3 2008
Michael E. Bradbury
In 1992, New Zealand adopted a sector-neutral approach to standard setting , where the difference in accounting treatment is driven by differences in the nature of transactions and not by ownership or the objectives of the reporting entity. This study reviews the impact of adaptations of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to ensure their successful application in a sector-neural environment. A fundamental question of the move to IFRS is whether the public benefit entity amendments in NZ IFRS have contaminated the IFRS for profit-orientated entities or diluted the available guidance for public benefit entities. This suggests that it is worthwhile for Australia and New Zealand to monitor and reconsider their sector-neutral approach to adopting IFRS. [source]

Accounting Classification in the IFRS Era

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 3 2008
Christopher Nobes
The degree to which, and the purposes for which, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have been adopted vary internationally. This paper uses classification techniques in order to investigate the reaction of countries, or companies within them, to IFRS. In addition, this paper investigates five aspects of this; for example, whether European countries mandate IFRS for unconsolidated financial reports. Previous classifications in accounting are used to help to predict and explain this. [source]

National Adoption of International Accounting Standards: An Institutional Perspective

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2010
William Judge
ABSTRACT Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: Effective corporate governance requires accurate and reliable financial information. Historically, each nation has developed and pursued its own financial standards; however, as financial markets consolidate into a global market, there is a need for a common set of financial standards. As a result, there is a movement towards harmonization of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) throughout the global economy. While there has been considerable research on the effects of IFRS adoption, there has been relatively little systematic study as to the antecedents of IFRS adoption. Consequently, this study seeks to understand why some economies have quickly embraced IFRS standards while others partially adopt IFRS and still others continue to resist. Research Findings/Results: After controlling for market capitalization and GDP growth, we find that foreign aid, import penetration, and level of education achieved within a national economy are all predictive of the degree to which IFRS standards are adopted across 132 developing, transitional and developed economies. Theoretical/Academic Implications: We found that all three forms of isomorphic pressures (i.e., coercive, mimetic, and normative) are predictive of IFRS adoption. Consequently, institutional theory with its emphasis on legitimacy-seeking by social actors was relatively well supported by our data. This suggests that the IFRS adoption process is driven more by social legitimization pressures, than it is by economic logic. Practitioner/Policy Implications: For policy makers, our findings suggest that the institutional pressures within an economy are the key drivers of IFRS adoption. Consequently, policy makers should seek to influence institutional pressures that thwart and/or enhance adoption of IFRS. For executives of multinational firms, our findings provide insights that can help to explain and predict future IFRS adoption within economies where their foreign subsidiaries operate. This ability could be useful for creating competitive advantages for foreign subsidiaries where IFRS adoption was resisted, or avoiding competitive disadvantages for foreign subsidiaries unfamiliar with IFRS standards. [source]

A Proposal for Teaching Introductory and Intermediate Accounting in an Environment of International Financial Reporting Standards and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles for Private Enterprises,

Proposed Changes in Lease Accounting and Private Business Bankers' Credit Decisions,

ACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVES, Issue 1 2009
Sylvain Durocher
ABSTRACT This study contributes to the debate on lease accounting currently ongoing at the international level and to future discussions at the Canadian level for private enterprise standards following a potential revision of lease accounting in international financial reporting standards (IFRS). A user perspective is adopted to examine private business bankers' preferences on the issue of capitalizing all noncancelable lease contracts, including operating leases, as suggested by the G4+1. While bankers use both capital and operating lease information, they give significantly more consideration to the former when analyzing private business loan requests. Accordingly, operating lease information receives less attention than capital lease information in the credit-granting decision process. In addition, private business bankers consider a number of aspects of the current lease accounting standard to be inadequate and are in favor of the principles governing the approach suggested by the G4+1. They feel that the capitalization of operating leases would improve their ability to evaluate lessees' long-term financial commitments and increase their estimates of the risks involved in providing financing to lessees. This study also demonstrates that the capitalization of operating leases would have a significant impact on key financial indicators of a sample of Canadian private companies. Bankers perceive that these realistic changes in financial indicators would affect their assessment of borrowers' capital structure/solvency, liquidity, ability to repay, and risk rating. From a cost-benefit perspective, the findings provide standard-setters with an indication of the benefits of the G4+1 proposals to users. [source]

It's coming: M&As under IFRSs

JOURNAL OF CORPORATE ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 3 2010
Kang Cheng
The authors predict that by 2014 , if not sooner , U.S. companies will find themselves reporting under international financial reporting standards, not generally accepted accounting principles. How will this affect your firm's merger-and-acquisition strategy and compliance? The authors explain that, and also offer some practical suggestions on how to prepare for the change. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]