IFAC and IIRC agree to co-operate
17 Oct 2012
The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote cooperation, coordination, and alignment between the two bodies. The MoU seeks to take advantages of the 'inherent synergies' between the work of IFAC and the IIRC in supporting of an internationally accepted framework for integrated reporting.
Under the MoU, IFAC and the IIRC acknowledge each other's mandates (speaking for the accountancy profession and developing an integrated reporting framework) and both parties acknowledge the complementary nature of those respective mandates. This is on the basis that:
"the successful development and implementation of <IR> [Integrated Reporting] is materially relevant and beneficial to the accountancy profession and the public interest and the active involvement and support of the accountancy profession is materially relevant and beneficial to the development and implementation of <IR>."
The MoU contains a number of commitments between the parties regarding such things as respecting each other's mandate and working together. In particular, the MoU seeks to "identify ways and means by which <IR> principles can be aligned with accounting practices to strengthen corporate reporting".
The MoU, which was signed in September and publicly announced on 17 October 2012, covers a number of related matters and is in force until 30 September 2014 - by which time the IIRC is expecting to have completed the first edition of its integrated reporting framework.
Click for:
- IFAC press release (link to IFAC website)
- IIRC press release (link to IIRC website)
- Full text of the MoU (link to IFAC website)
