G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors drop accounting convergence from their communiqué

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24 Feb, 2014

Over past years, the G20 used to call for convergence of accounting standards in the final communiqués published after their summits. The newest communiqué published after the meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Sydney does not contain a call for converged accounting standards anymore.

In past years, the communiqués always saw a paragraph such as “We underline the importance of continuing work on accounting standards convergence in order to enhance resilience of financial system. We urge the International Accounting Standards Board and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board to complete by the end of 2013 their work on key outstanding projects for achieving a single set of high-quality accounting standards.” (2013 G20 summit in St. Petersburg). However, the communiqué published after the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors met in Sydney on 22 and 23 February 2014 keeps mute on the topic.

Recent decisions in January and February 2014 mean that only two of the four major convergence projects – revenue recognition (currently expected to be finalised towards the end of the first quarter of 2014) and leases (no timing available yet, redeliberations will be resumed in March) – remain on the IASB/FASB convergence agenda.

Please click for the communiqué on the G20 website.

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