IFRS in a Speech on Essay

Total Length: 1621 words ( 5 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 8

Page 1 of 5

However, financial reporting as a system has its limits. It cannot stabilize the world economy, save the environment and help investors understand the financial condition of a company all at once. On a theoretical level, the people guiding the development and improvement of IFRS need to take this reality into consideration.

Transparency is most certainly a role of IFRS, arguably the most important one. The more difficult IFRS makes fraud, for example, the better it is. Stability, however, is not a critical role of IFRS. International financial reporting standards can and do have a direct impact on the transparency of financial statements; they have only a minor and tangential impact on the state of the global economy. While the value they provide in terms of improving liquidity is appreciated, global economic stability is determined by a wide range of other factors, most of which have little to do with financial reporting standards. Thus, stability is more something to which IFRS has a minor contribution, rather than is an objective unto itself; it is a byproduct of the primary objective of transparency.
Works Cited:

Barth, Mary, Landsman, Wayne and Lang, Mark. International Accounting Standards and Accounting Quality. Journal of Accounting Research

Volume 46, Issue 3, pages 467-498, June 2008

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-679X.2008.00287.x/full

Bruce, R. (2011). Clarity and thought in Brussels. Deloitte. http://www.iasplus.com/bruce/column110211.htm, accessed 28 August 2011

Gray, Robert. Accounting and environmentalism: An exploration of the challenge of gently accounting for accountability, transparency and sustainability. Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 17,No. 5,pp. 399-425,1992.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/036136829290038T

Hoogervorst, H. Speech, Brussels 9 February 2011

http://www.afm.nl/layouts/afm/default.aspx~/media/files/lezingen/2011/speech-hh-ec-financial-reporting-auditing.ashx, accessed 26 August 2011

Hoogervorst, H. Speech, Beijing: "China and IFRS - an opportunity for leadership in global financial reporting"

29 July 2011

http://www.ifrs.org/News/Announcements+and+Speeches/Hans+Hoogervorst+Beijing+speech+July+2011.htm, accessed 26 August 2011.....

Need Help Writing Your Essay?