World leaders outline future of accounting

A committee of the world’s financial leaders today outlined four guiding
principals that they believe should underpin the global accounting regime.

The influential Monitoring Board, which provides oversight on the framework
of global accounting bodies, said standards should be “reliable”, “relevant”,
“understandable” and “comparable”.

The
board, which counts among its members Securities and Exchange
Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro, has laid out core principles which it
believes should underpin accounting standards.

In a statement, the board said accounting rules should provide investors with
information to “assist them in efficiently allocating their hard-earned
investment money”.

“We feel it appropriate to ensure that the fundamental principles on which
accounting standards are based and under which the standard setting process
operates remain front of mind as areas identified during the financial crisis as
needing improvement are addressed”, it said.

The board went on to state that independence remains an essential component
in the development of high quality, global accounting standards.

“The monitoring board is strongly committed to guarding the independence and
accountability of the standard setting process,” the board said.

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