International Developments in Accounting and Auditing :


The Credit and Financial Crisis continues to weighs heavily on our agendas because the impacts are far from over. Impaired assets, the appearance of new sovereign risks, slow or stagnant growth are a few of the indicators that the crisis is far from over.

There are several revelations from the crisis that companies have come to realize. Some of these eye openers that have changed the accounting and finance routines because:
  • The crisis has shown to us that only global solutions can work.
  • Common accounting standards and their consistent application are crucial for the functioning of global capital markets
  • Accepting the same set of global auditing standards, exercising the same level of high quality audit oversight
  • Trusting each other is essential however securities and guarantees are much better

At the same time it is vital to plan beyond the immediate crisis, its causes and short term survival strategies. It's time to continue to build progress we were making already before the crisis in the accounting and audit worlds. The crisis has shown us, has it not, that we have to cooperate together to develop financial policy; with good standards and implementation of them; building the right incentives; making financial markets safer and sustainable. Capital markets are interconnected and global. Its problems are global, and therefore we need global solutions.

ACCOUNTING
During day 1 of the conference we will focus on accounting issues. We shall focus on two main areas which are: "Sharing experiences in implementing IFRS" and "Progress towards adoption of IFRS". Clearly, these two go hand in hand. The presentation will be by one of the most experienced person in this area, Mr Jens Røder who is the Secretary General of the Nordic Federation of Chartered Accountants. He represents (or has) several organizations in many EU and International advisory boards and was previously European partner of PwC and chairman of the Danish CPA association.

Progress towards adoption of IFRS
The move to International Accounting Standards system was bold and visionary. More than a decade ago, Europe set the course for building an integrated European capital market. We had come to a point, that with the arrival of the single currency, where we had to break down barriers and fragmentation in the EU capital and financial services markets.

We had to rethink our approach because our financial reporting practices no longer met the new requirements for integrated markets. Since then over 100 countries worldwide have already signed up to IFRS.
  • Canada has committed to fully adopt IFRS by 2011.
  • China has made enormous efforts to reform its accounting standards in line with IFRS.
  • Last year Japan published a roadmap towards the adoption of IFRS already allowing certain companies to use it on a voluntary basis from 2010.
  • The SEC intends to take similar steps soon and then other countries that are still debating whether and when to converge will follow suit.

In the context of the financial crisis, the G20 has called for the creation of a single set of high quality global accounting standards, as well as for cooperation among regulators, supervisors and accounting standard setters to ensure their consistent application and enforcement