Asian-Oceanian Standard-Setters Group launches website, makes documents public

  • AOSSG (Asian-Oceanian Standard-Setters Group) (dk green) Image

04 Nov 2010

The Asian-Oceanian Standard-Setters Group (AOSSG) has launched its website and made a number of papers available, including on Islamic finance.

The AOSSG is a regional platform to discuss problems and share experiences in the IFRS convergence process, participate in the development of IFRSs, and to make contributions to a single set of high quality global accounting standards. At a recent AOSSG meeting, Sir David Tweedie (IASB Chairman) noted input from the Asia-Oceanic region should be given more weight given the strong economic growth and developments throughout the region.

In addition to general information about the AOSSG, the website includes access to a number of AOSSG documents, including past submissions and research papers.

Of particular interest may be a research paper prepared on accounting issues associated with Islamic finance, including consideration of the application of IFRSs to Islamic finance transactions. An extract follows:

It is noted that in jurisdictions where Shariah interpretations espouse an approach that differ from IFRS requirements, standard-setters may have to accede to such interpretations, and allow or require departures from those requirements for Islamic financial transactions. Such departures may have implications on plans for convergence.

This Paper concludes that the challenge to standard-setters and stakeholders is to enhance the cross-border comparability of Islamic financial transactions, while being mindful of religious sensitivities. Although IFRS may be touted as being internationally accepted, there is resistance by those who believe that some IFRS principles are irreconcilable with their interpretation of Shariah, and that separate financial reporting principles are warranted.

The website (including access to the research paper noted above) can be found at www.aossg.org. We maintain an AOSSG page Here.

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