International Financial Performance Of Companies From Different Countries

Despite those enormous advantages, it has been argued that IFRSS adoption lead to significant costs. The main argument is that IFRSs do not consider local needs and priorities as every country has their own ‘business environment, legal systems, cultures, language and political environment’ (Henderson and Peirson, 2000 cited from Malthus, S., 2004). However, to overcome this problem, IASB can accommodate flexible reporting standards that enable companies to choose alternatives that are more suitable for their external condition. It is opinion of some opponents of IFRS adoption that IAS is ‘insufficiently detailed’ (Uddin,M.S., 2005, p.4) that require accountants’ and auditor’ professional judgment. However, overly detail might be contra productive and not flexible in anticipating every changes and differences.

Epstein, Barry Jay. "The Economic Effects of IFRS Adoption." CPA Journal. (2009): 26-31. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.

UK’s IFRSs are designed to make it easier to compare the performance of organizations in different countries, rather than each country maintaining its own GAAP, which makes such comparisons difficult. All listed EU companies have been required to use IFRSs since 2005. The adoption of IFRSs by the private sector is expected to have various benefits for both companies and investors; including (1) UK’s IFRSs will remove the need for companies with foreign subsidiaries to translate the accounts for consolidation with the parent company accounts. Also (2) it will be easier for investors to make informed decisions about the performance of companies in different countries because of the increased transparency and a better understanding of financial statements.

The U.S is moving toward IFRS (Forgeas, 2008). In the near future, all US company may need to report financial statements under IFRS. This makes the adaptation of IFRS unavoidable. Recently, some large multinational

It has been in deliberation to whether all countries in the world would subject their accounting system under IFRS. As of 2013, there are more than 120 countries around the world necessitate or permit the use of IFRS. These efforts of convergence are to initialize the transparency and uniformity of accounting principles.

With the growth of international business there is a need to standardize financial statements globally. Presently there are “approximately 120 foreign private issuers currently that report to the Commission using IFRS financial statements.” By standardizing accounting practices investors will be able to make informed decisions based on comparability and accuracy of financial statements. The SEC released this statement in 2008, “We believe that IFRS has the potential to best provide the common platform on which companies can report and investors can compare financial information.” The SEC has created a “Roadmap” or plan to convert US GAAP over to IFRS. According to The Committee of

Before delving into the arguments against IFRS adoption, it is important to note that the U.S. economy and institutional framework have many idiosyncrasies. Hence, even if switching to IFRS proved beneficial for some countries, it would not necessarily be the same for the United States. To start, the United States possesses the largest economy in the world, and its public equity market accounts for a third of global market

But there a certain limit of flexibility of this international standards for cover with all the differences accounting standard or accounting practices in between country. The IFRS is to increase the comparability of annual financial reports no matter oversea or domestic. This only can be success when the new set of accounting standard published by IFRS and adopting by country when only the cultural, economics, politics and other factors within the country change (Chen, 2009).

Ankarath, N., Ghosh, T.P., Alkafaji, Y. A., & Mehta, K. J. (2010). Understanding IFRS Fundamentals: International Financial Reporting Standards.

Most of the economic allies of the US have moved to IFRS, and it has become a major challenge for both the trading partners and internal companies.

There have been proposals that have been working on with regard to the replacement of GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) with IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) as used in the accounting and financial reporting aspects. Such convergence requires that the functions of the GAAP standards be added to the IFRS. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) developed the IFRS which is a less-detailed financial reporting system.

The IFRS are made to be a common global language used for accounting and business in order for an organisations monetary situation is easily understood and interpretable between different countries (Eng, Sun & Vichitsarawong, 2014). For example, financial reporting in Saudi Arabia of an organisation may look more favourable than an Australian company, because of the different measures used by

IFRS is beneficial due to the adoption of a single set of the accounting standard, Randy, M (2014). This may reduce costs of preparing company’s financial statements, which is a significant expense to a company as opposed to preparing financial statements multiple times over multiple standards, Edwards (1993). This indicates that there is less chance of investors to be confused with companies who follow IFRS; this is the confusion of reports using multiple standards showing different results for the same company every year, which could deter some investors away.

Accountants believe that the major benefit of the adoption of IFRS are to save money on alternative comparison and individual investigation because these standards provide the bench mark for all international companies in reporting of financial transactions as well as helps the information to move freely.

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are an international set of accounting standards. Early in the 21st century, the Australian Accounting Standards board, with guidance from the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), decided to implement IFRS’s throughout Australia. This decision was made so that Australia could participate and contribute to the development of a distinct set of accounting standards that could be used all around the world.