IFRS Regional Policy Forum

IFRS Regional Policy Forum

Background

The IFRS Regional Policy Forum is one of the key platforms in the Asian-Oceanic region for standards setters, policymakers, regulators and government bodies to deliberate on broader topics in relation to the diverse roles of financial reporting and how financial reporting could influence policy formulation and execution. The forum is usually attended by senior representatives from the international accounting standard-setters community, securities exchanges, central banks, financial market regulators, tax authorities, governments, audit practitioners and academia.

The Forum has been held since 2005 by the following jurisdictions, namely, Australia, Japan, China and Singapore. For the related Communiqués, please follow the links below:

In 2012, the 6th IFRS Regional Policy Forum was hosted by the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board (MASB) on 26th to 27th March in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The 6th Policy Forum was attended by about 140 participants from 22 jurisdictions and 10 international organisations. The participants included senior representatives of international, regional and national accounting standard setting bodies and their oversight bodies, securities exchanges, central banks, financial market regulators, tax authorities, governments, audit practitioners, audit regulators, professional bodies, users and academia.

The 22 jurisdictions attending were Australia, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, China, Dubai, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Korea, Macao, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Syria, Thailand and Vietnam.

Mr. Hans Hoogervorst, Chairman and Mr. Ian Mackintosh, Vice Chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board (“IASB”), Mr. Jeffrey Lucy, Trustee IFRS Foundation and Mr. Charles Macek, IFRS Advisory Vice Chairman and 3 other IASB Board members also attended the Forum.

The theme for this year’s Forum was “Convergence and Beyond, Navigating Change”. To date many of the jurisdictions in Asian Oceanian have either adopted or are converging with IFRS or have set near term target dates for convergence. Globally more than 100 countries, including two thirds of G20 members have adopted IFRSs in full and without modification.

The keynote address delivered by Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar, Chairman, Securities Commission Malaysia set the tone for the Forum. The key messages were that a single reporting framework and high quality financial reporting is fundamental to the fairness, efficiency and transparency of any financial market. The availability of resources is a key implementation challenge and requires regional and international cooperation to make available experts, financial assistance, build capacity and enhance education.

For details and outcome of the 2012 Forum, please click here for the Communique.

For details and outcome of the 2011 Forum, please click here for the Communiqué.