Was IFRS a waste of time?

As the bulk of AIM companies brace themselves for the rigours of IFRS compliance, many will be wondering whether the standards aren’t something of a white elephant?

Written by David Jetuah

The devil has been in the detail for the FTSE 350. Even now, accounting bodies are working feverishly to hammer out the plethora of sticking points.

Uniformity remains a major problem as companies in each EU member state report their own problems, which will lead to further harmonisation.

Advertisement

Recently, blue-chip companies have entered into a flexing, rather than a bending of the rules in presenting their company information.

Dual-listed BHP Billiton slapped $354m (£181m) of goodwill on its books after using an Aussie GAAP ruling instead of the UK GAAP version.

The ripple effect of IFRS compliance brings up some other questions­ who are the AIM companies going to turn to to solve their IFRS quandaries?
Will the Big Four be called upon to take AIM debutantes by the hand to the detriment of the chasing mid-tier pack?

That would be an awkward result for regulators.

While trying to persuade companies to hire smaller firms for work and getting anxious about the dominance of the Big Four, the staggered introduction of IFRS has led to bigger firms having a huge competitive advantage.

David Jetuah is a reporter on Accountancy Age

Tags:

Comments

White papers

Related jobs

More Accounting jobs

Spotlight

Andrew Higginson, Tesco Personal Finance

Profile: Andrew Higginson, CEO of Tesco Personal Finance

He’s spent more than a decade at the top of...

Top 30 Accounting Networks and Associations 2008

The race to become the biggest firm on the planet...

Barack Obama Accountancy Age cover October 2008

Obama: asset or liability?

What an Obama presidency could mean for you

Find your next job

Find your next job
Salary Checker

Job of the week

More finance jobs

Newsletters

Sign up here for the very latest news delivered to your inbox. Choose from the following options:

Your next job

Have your say

Will proposed tax cuts help to stimulate the economy?
Yes
No

Advertisement

Search white papers

Search white papers

Advertisement