Across Europe, listed companies report their annual performance in the same way, using IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards), the framework adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board (Iasb).
In Asia however, only listed companies in Hong Kong and Singapore report their earnings using IFRS. Within other Asian countries, national regulators issue their own independent set of guidelines. At the G20 summit in Pittsburg, we heard that the global financial community believes this should change.
US President Barack Obama and the rest of the G20 leaders voraciously called on international accounting bodies to redouble their efforts to achieve a single set of high quality, global accounting standards within the context of their independent standard setting process, and complete this convergence by June 2011.
As part of his response to the various demands from the G20 leaders, Sir David Tweedie, Chairman of the IASB, introduced IFRS 9, a new standard to report...