German Standard Setter continues to exist
31 May 2011
In June 2010, unresolved questions of financing and membership basis had led the Accounting Standards Committee of Germany (ASCG) to terminate, effective 31 December 2010, the standardisation agreement with Germany's Ministry of Justice.
After months of debate and renewed efforts to find sustainable financing, the General Assembly of the ASCG decided yesterday:
- to continue the ASCG and to tentatively approve a new structure as sketched out below;
- to reform its structure, going from corporate and personal membership to a corporate model where only companies and associations could become members;
- to have a trustee board comprising members from all constituent groups (i.e. [corporate] listed preparers, non-listed preparers, banks, insurers, audit firms, and others), which would be charged with setting the broad strategy of the ASCG;
- to form a nominating committee comprised by representatives from all constituent groups (members of the trustee board cannot become members of the nominating committee though);
- to set up two technical committees comprising a maximum of seven members each with a diverse background; one committee would be charged with IFRSs/international financial reporting matters, the other with German GAAP, respectively; a member's term would usually be five years (staggered terms will apply at the start of the new structure to ensure that not all members leave at the same time) and can be renewed; and
- to maintain the current German Accounting Standards Board and its interpretative arm, the Accounting Interpretations Committee (AIC), until the new committees have been formed and are ready to start working (presumably 1 October 2011).
Click for the ASCG press release (link to ASCG website).
