Finance execs still give IFRS the cold shoulder

Only a fifth of FTSE 350 finance executives believe IFRS has positively benefited the world’s capital markets.

While about 42% of companies are now more comfortable in dealing with the new standards, 36% don’t even think it has been beneficial.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey, which set out to determine how comfortable the financial community is following the global switch to IFRS a year ago, found that companies remain fairly negative about the benefits of the standards and their impact on the capital markets.

A total of 62% of executives dispute whether IFRS has resulted in better information in the marketplace. Another two thirds believe that IFRS has not had a positive impact on the quality of UK reporting. Worryingly, 58% of those surveyed did not believe investors understood the IFRS numbers.

PwC’s IFRS expert, Ian Dilks said: ‘Companies have come through the conversion process successfully. They are now feeling more comfortable with the new standards. However, there are still concerns about the overall benefit of IFRS.’

Finance executives once again made the call for a simplification of the rules and less complex standards, along with a reduced volume of disclosure to help investor understanding of financial statements.

There were also renewed calls for greater alignment of US GAAP and IFRS, saying Sarbanes-Oxley continued to present challenges for company reporting.