2003

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Las páginas web: IASPlus Spain (new website)

11 Jan 2003

En http://iasplus.deloitte.es podrá obtener toda la información necesaria para entender nuestra metodología y enfoque de cara a la integración a las normas contables y para estar al día de todas las novedades en cuanto a reglamentos, normativas, noticias, y eventos de las IAS. .

En http://iasplus.deloitte.es podrá obtener toda la información necesaria para entender nuestra metodología y enfoque de cara a la integración a las normas contables y para estar al día de todas las novedades en cuanto a reglamentos, normativas, noticias, y eventos de las IAS.

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IAS: Guía Rápida (IAS in your Pocket: Spanish)

11 Jan 2003

Esta segunda edición de "IAS: Guía Rápida" es una guía excepcional para ayudarle a conocer y entender cómo las normas contables continúan convergiendo a nivel mundial.

Con el mayor énfasis en las Normas Internacionales de Contabilidad y el número creciente de empresas que deben adoptarlas en los próximos años, usted puede encontrar que (PDF 1,883k) es una guía muy útil. Al resumir la información clave sobre las NIC y sus interpretaciones, esta guía constituye una excelente introducción a un nuevo lenguaje que, en breve, será parte de su actividad profesional.
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All domestic companies in Estonia may use IFRS starting in 2003

10 Jan 2003

A new Estonian law allows domestic companies to use either Estonian GAAP or International Financial Reporting Standards for accounting periods beginning 1 January 2003.

Listed companies have already been using IFRS, generally complying at the same time with Estonian GAAP by choosing the accounting policy prescribed by Estonian GAAP where IFRS allows a choice.

Estonian credit institutions and insurance companies, as well as listed companies, will be required to apply IFRS as of 1 January 2005.

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SAICA and JSE Work Together to Ensure Accounting Compliance

10 Jan 2003

The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) have established a panel of specialists to ensure that listed companies comply with South African Statements of Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP). GAAP accords with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

At present, GAAP does not have legal backing within legislation. Government, in response to SAICA's request to provide legal backing, has drafted legislation in the form of the Financial Services Bill. Currently, all listed companies are obliged by the listings requirements of the JSE to comply with GAAP or IFRS. As the JSE lacks the resources to solely monitor compliance with accounting standards it has partnered with SAICA to ensure that listed companies do comply. The GMP will not review all companies' financial statements but will investigate complaints referred by the JSE that GAAP had not been observed.

SAICA and the JSE will both be vigilant for non-compliance.

The GMP comprises specialists from various business fields with knowledge of GAAP. Complaints will be referred by the JSE to the panel of specialists. The chairman of the GMP will refer the matter to a review committee selected by him from the panel, the members of which will be anonymous for a particular complaint and will report their findings to the JSE listings division. The JSE will use existing structures to address the matter and consider further action.

The JSE can also lodge a formal complaint to the Public Accountants' and Auditors' Board in cases where a Registered Accountant and Auditor acting as an auditor to a company issued an inappropriate audit opinion, and to SAICA, in instances where a SAICA member was involved in the preparation and or approval of the financial statements.

The GMP was launched on 4 September 2002.

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Charles Niemeier is named acting chairman of PCAOB

10 Jan 2003

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has designated Charles D.

Niemeier as the Acting Chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Prior to his selection as a member of the PCAOB, Mr. Niemeier was the Chief Accountant in the Commission's Division of Enforcement and co-chairman of the Commission's Financial Fraud Task Force. (PDF 34k).
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SEC proposes delisting for violation of audit committee rules

10 Jan 2003

The US SEC has proposed a rule that would direct the US securities exchanges and associations to prohibit the listing of any security of an issuer that is not in compliance with the audit committee requirements established by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The proposed rule would apply to both domestic and foreign listed issuers.

Several provisions have been included that seek to address the special circumstances of particular foreign jurisdictions. (PDF 45k).
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Special Edition of our Newsletter, IFRS: Year 2002 in Review

10 Jan 2003

We have published a special global edition of our IAS Plus newsletter, IFRS: Year 2002 in Review.

It includes a five-page chronology, lists of various types of documents published by IASB, IFRS resources published by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, national adoptions of IFRS during 2002, and an IASB calendar for 2003. Click to download (PDF 95k).
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Use of IAS/IFRS in new EU member states and Singapore

09 Jan 2003

Ten countries have been approved for EU membership as of 1 May 2004: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia.

IAS/IFRS are already required in Cyprus and Malta and permitted in several others. If the EU finalises the memberships of these countries, listed companies in all 10 countries will have to adopt IAS/IFRS in 2005. We have updated our Table of Use of IFRS for Domestic Reporting to reflect these and several other recent national adoptions. Please note that we have amended the table to classify Singapore as not permitting IAS. We had reported in December 2001 that all Singapore listed companies would be required to follow IAS starting in 2003. However, the final Regulation adopted in December 2002 by the new Council on Corporate Disclosure and Governance requires all Singapore-incorporated companies to follow Singapore Financial Reporting Standards "which are closely modelled after the International Accounting Standards and International financial Reporting Standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board".
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IASB's January meeting dates changed

08 Jan 2003

The IASB has announced that the public portion of the Board's January 2003 meeting will take place only on 22 and 23 January, at the IASB's offices in London.

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Three former SEC Chief Accountants urge strong PCAOB actions

07 Jan 2003

Three former Chief Accountants of the US Securities and Exchange Commission have written a to the new Public Company Accounting Oversight Board proposing a three-point program to restore investor confidence in the US capital markets.

They describe the accounting scandals that surfaced in the past year as "cataclysmic events [that] have changed the world's view of a system that we have often proclaimed to be 'the best in the world.' Understandably, the damage to the reputation of our financial reporting system and its critical guardians has been so severe that the investing public has lost confidence and now demands real reforms."

The pillars of the three-point program proposed by former Chief Accountants Walter P. Schuetze, Michael H. Sutton, and Lynn E. Turner are: PCAOB must exercise its mandate to establish independence guidelines that will ensure that auditors embrace a role that is fully consistent with high public expectations. PCAOB must insist that the profession tackle financial reporting failures as a distinct issue with a distinct goal - disaster prevention. "We understand that, in life, 'zero defects' are almost never realized. Nevertheless, the public expects that the profession will pursue that end - and with greater energy than in the past - and with more success. To this end, the PCAOB should establish auditing standards, rather than delegating that role to the auditing profession." PCAOB should establish necessary regulatory processes that give comfort to investors and the public that the profession is doing all that it can do to prevent future episodes of failed financial reporting. Those processes should include independent inspections of the audits performed by auditors of the financial statements of public companies. Inspections should be performed by staff of the PCAOB and not 'outsourced' to the auditing profession.

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