The welcome address by Prof Dieter Truxius, Vice-Chair of the Administrative Board of the ASCG and one of Germany's leading experts in accounting and controlling issues related to German family-owned businesses, already revealed a clear message that would resurface in all speeches and discussions. He noted that the German industry is extremely critical of proposals that might lead to modifying IFRS® Standards during the EU endorsement process or even after they have been endorsed.
He concluded: "Such trends lead to disparities in international accounting and prevent cross-border comparability of financial statements. Ladies and gentlemen, we should take a firm stand against this trend."
The two ensuing panel discussions showed an interesting combination of panelists. A Member of Parliament, a CFO, an NGO representative, and an auditor discussed "Changing behaviour by requiring ESG information – Where is the boundary of the financial report?". While it was noted by some that a lot of reporting on ESG issues is boilerplate, it was also stated that there was an increased visibility and awareness of information, not only from the outside but also within companies. Whether reporting requirements could and should be used to change behaviour was contested with views ranging from the role financial markets can play to achieve sustainability to the warning against overtaxing reporting with an inflation of additional requirements. Measurability (and therefore auditability) and materiality were also controversely discussed with the difference of materiality to an entity and materiality to society especially noted.
In the concluding panel, the IASB Chairman, a CAO of a digital company, an ESMA representative, and a professor of accounting discussed "Digital reporting vs. Reporting in a digital world". The opening round of questions alone showed the many facets of the topic with some insights of what is already possible proving to be almost scary. Questions around XBRL dominated the discussion on what is currently being done, which saw comments on comparability in connection with block tagging, detailed tagging, and use of XBRL extensions, although it was mentioned that XBRL might not be more than an interim solution. It was also noted that as a result of increasing digitalisation information overload ceases to be so much of a problem and materiality questions might need to be asked differently. However, it was warned that while more and more information can be processed electronically and, therefore, quicker understanding patterns and drivers has not become easier. It was asked whether and when a point comes where we trust machine judgement more than management judgement and whether at some point of time, reporting and consumption of financial information would become a game of "Watson against Watson". One important aspect in the whole discussion was also the question of what is being reported as companies with digital business models have huge amounts of intangibles they cannot show in their financial statements. Accounting for intangibles was clearly identified as an area where current financial reporting needs to evolve.
An informal exchange of opinions between the many national and international guests, which included representatives of the standard-setters from the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong, concluded the event.
Review a summary of the event, in German, on the ASCG's website.