IFRS

The ultimate choice of the accounting world or will the “IASB” march to a different drummer?

With its recent issuance of a controversial ‘exposure draft’ – a proposed standard – on ‘Financial Instruments,’ the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has taken a vastly different approach to financial reporting to that taken by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

At the end of 2009, the IASB had promulgated their own version of the revised standard on ‘Financial Instruments’ – a new standard entitled ‘IFRS 9’ – in response to a call by the finance ministers and governors of central banks of the G20, representing the 20 most powerful economies of the world. Some believe this latest move by the U.S. FASB does not fit well with the global ‘convergence’ initiative and the various standard setters around the globe.