A public meeting called to discuss the convergence of UK accounting standards with international financial reporting standards failed to find a definitive answer
The meeting set out to consider how best to bring about convergence between the two standards and what standards should apply to UK companies not required to report under IFRS. It also considered how best to influence the evolution of IFRS.
Four proposals had been put forward for discussion:
# The adoption of full IFRS for all but the smallest companies
# IASB standards for all but the large public interest companies
# Introducing a third tier of reporting that would:
- use a scaled down version of IFRS or
- a beefed-up version of the SME standard.
Views at the meeting were diverse. Of the proposals put forward by the ASB, use of the SME standards or a scaled-down version of IFRS were marginally the most popular. Other suggestions from the floor included the introduction of IFRS for public interest companies and no accounting for the rest.
There was some criticism of the way the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) had handled the introduction of IFRS, with some saying the IASB was unwilling to listen to concerns and that it was almost impossible to change the direction of a standard once an exposure draft had been issued.