IFRS Foundation survey of the use of IFRSs around the world

Date recorded:

IFRS Foundation staff presented a high-level summary of the preliminary results of a survey of the use of IFRSs around the world.  This survey, conducted in 2012, concentrated on collecting views from standard-setters, market regulators and professional institutes about ‘who’ (which jurisdictions use IFRSs) and ‘how’ (methods of incorporation of IFRSs into local reporting requirements).  The survey had focused on whether and how IFRSs were required for domestic companies.  The survey had three primary objectives:

  • Gaining hard data on and a better understanding of local IFRS application;
  • Establishing an independent resource of information; and
  • Identifying where the IFRS Foundation could provide targeted support for the adoption of IFRSs.

The staff noted that all G20 member countries had responded, other than the United States, and that standardised templates for all of these 19 countries would be released on the IFRS Foundation website on 1 March 2013.  Other responses would be added at a later date.

Yael Almog, IFRS Foundation Executive Director stated that the survey had started as a collection of data, but that the IFRSF was now attempting to validate the data so that what is available on www.ifrs.org is as accurate as possible and that any changes can be validated before they are released.  The IFRSF would use the information to identify inconsistent application and then work with those jurisdictions to enhance the quality of the application of IFRSs in those jurisdictions.  The IFRSF had already identified the need to find an efficient and effective means to maintain this data, but not the solution.

Council members spoke in support of the initiative and encouraged the IFRSF to maintain and even enhance the information (e.g., to provide data explicitly on the use of the IFRS for SMEs; to identify the standard-setting resources in a country; and to determine a jurisdiction’s powers of direct amendment and interpretation).

After an intensive round of interventions, the Chairman suggested that the sense of the Council was that the IFRS Foundation was fully justified in verifying the data received and welcomed the forthcoming release of the G20 data.

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