The Concept on Prudence: Dead or Alive?
The Concept of Prudence: dead or alive?
FEE Conference on Corporate Reporting of the Future, Brussels, Belgium, Tuesday 18
September 2012
Hans Hoogervorst, Chairman of the IASB
______________________________________________________________
Ladies and gentlemen, I am grateful to the Federation of European Accountants for the opportunity to participate in today’s conference. As has often been said, Europe kickstarted the move towards global accounting standards when it and others adopted IFRSs from
2005. The accounting profession in Europe played a vital role in the success of this project. I and my fellow members of the IASB are extremely grateful to FEE and its membership for leading this important work.
The theme of today’s conference is corporate reporting of the future. There could be no better time to consider such a topic. In the last ten years we have seen nothing short of a revolution in financial reporting. Ten years ago, no one used international standards. Today, companies in more than 100 countries do so, including almost three quarters of the G20.
Against any measure, this has been quite an achievement.
So, after the revolution, what comes next? What is the future of corporate reporting?
There are various initiatives trying to address this question. One of the most important is the work to take a more holistic view of corporate reporting, known as integrated reporting. The goal of integrated reporting is to bring together many reporting requirements including sustainability, the environment, social issues as well as of course financial reporting. These topics are becoming more inter-dependent, and many investors want to understand the interplay between them. I also think for investors to properly understand financial statements, they are in need of non-financial key performance indicators. For example, a company might decide to cut back sharply on training and education of its employees. This decision might make its next
FEE Conference on Corporate Reporting of the Future, Brussels, Belgium, Tuesday 18
September 2012
Hans Hoogervorst, Chairman of the IASB
______________________________________________________________
Ladies and gentlemen, I am grateful to the Federation of European Accountants for the opportunity to participate in today’s conference. As has often been said, Europe kickstarted the move towards global accounting standards when it and others adopted IFRSs from
2005. The accounting profession in Europe played a vital role in the success of this project. I and my fellow members of the IASB are extremely grateful to FEE and its membership for leading this important work.
The theme of today’s conference is corporate reporting of the future. There could be no better time to consider such a topic. In the last ten years we have seen nothing short of a revolution in financial reporting. Ten years ago, no one used international standards. Today, companies in more than 100 countries do so, including almost three quarters of the G20.
Against any measure, this has been quite an achievement.
So, after the revolution, what comes next? What is the future of corporate reporting?
There are various initiatives trying to address this question. One of the most important is the work to take a more holistic view of corporate reporting, known as integrated reporting. The goal of integrated reporting is to bring together many reporting requirements including sustainability, the environment, social issues as well as of course financial reporting. These topics are becoming more inter-dependent, and many investors want to understand the interplay between them. I also think for investors to properly understand financial statements, they are in need of non-financial key performance indicators. For example, a company might decide to cut back sharply on training and education of its employees. This decision might make its next