Basel Committee principles for revising IAS 39

  • Comprehensive Revision to IAS 39 Image

28 Aug 2009

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has published a set of high level guiding principles to assist the IASB in addressing issues related to provisioning, fair value measurement, and related disclosures.

In releasing the principles the Basel Committee said that "the principles will help it produce standards that improve the decision usefulness and relevance of financial reporting for key stakeholders, including prudential regulators. Moreover, the principles would ensure that accounting reforms address broader concerns about procyclicality and systemic risk." Click to Download the Basel Committee's Principles (PDF 20k). Here is an excerpt:

The new standard should:

  • (a) reflect the need for earlier recognition of loan losses to ensure robust provisions;
  • (b) recognise that fair value is not effective when markets became dislocated or are illiquid;
  • (c) permit reclassifications from the fair value to the amortised cost category; this should be allowed in rare circumstances following the occurrence of events having clearly led to a change in the business model;
  • (d) promote a level playing field across jurisdictions.

 

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