IASB should wise up

There is little point in discussing the details of the arguments, except to say that suggestions that there should be country-by-country reporting, rather than the slightly meaningless management method, have a great deal of merit.

The point, really, is to emphasise European distaste – disgust might be putting it a little too strongly – for US accounting standards. It isn’t some sort of narrow xenophobic point about disliking the US pushing others around in the world.

It is grounded, more than anything else, in a belief that the US is not necessarily the source of all knowledge on accounting matters. Without making too much of a point about Enron, you could just say that it seems a bit strange, in that context, to have the US impose its standards elsewhere.

Money talks, of course, and if only the IASB felt like delaying, most of the money might be over here in due course, if present trends continue and everyone decides to list here rather than in the States.

David Tweedie has reacted to criticisms of the segmental reporting standard by going on the warpath and directly addressed the European Parliament on the issue.

‘I am here today to state that the IASB is not seeking convergence at any price nor will the IASB adopt US GAAP blindly,’ Tweedie said.

That’s not exactly what it looks like, and if Tweedie and the IASB want to make the convergence project work, they will have to make it look more like the two sides are converging, and less like the wholesale surrender it appears to be at present.

Penny Sukhraj is a reporter on Accountancy Age