Indeed, thanks to a recent article in the Financial Times by Accounting Standards Board chairman Ian Mackintosh, we know that regulators, at least, are feeling the pressure after a meeting in which the chairmen insisted there were fundamental problems with IFRS and complained ‘stridently’.

Mackintosh says the chairmen should not worry, and sums up the problems as ‘teething troubles’ and their cause a ‘misplaced nostalgia’ for the old accounting regime.

Those are strong words in themselves, especially the accusation that chairmen are afflicted by nostalgia. He then goes on to dismiss their complaints almost out of hand. ‘So much for the company chairmen,’ he writes. If Mackintosh were looking for a way to incite the chairmen further, he may have found it.

But Mackintosh does indicate that the ASB may be giving ground on one important point – how to deal with the volatility caused by fair-value accounting. The ASB has a plan to tackle this by issuing a document on how fair-value should be calculated (a real bugbear) and this will appear as a ‘discussion paper’ rather than an ‘exposure draft’, giving people more time to respond.

The move, though subtle, is clearly a sign that the ASB is concerned enough to at least hear the arguments, if not signal they are becoming more receptive to them.

It’s too early to conclude which way things will go. However, if company chairmen are spending so much time on complaining vociferously, it would be a brave regulator who believes their arguments were entirely hollow.