FT: ASB steps back from tough new accountancy rules

31 January 2012

The Accounting Standards Board has reneged on plans to impose new disclosure standards on building societies and other lenders, after feedback to the proposals suggested it would prove too costly.

However, the ASB said it changed plans after receiving feedback that the cost to some businesses of applying the EU-adopted IFRS would outweigh any potential benefits.

As a result, the ASB decided to eliminate the category of public accountability, meaning companies which would previously have been classified as publicly accountable would no longer have to apply the European standards.

The application of the EU standards is not required beyond the rules of the EU’s International Accounting Standards Regulation.

The ASB has also pushed back the date of implementation by two years from 1 July 2013 to the same day in 2015, with an option for companies to take up the new policies earlier if preferred.

Press release


© Financial Times