It has been a busy few weeks since end of October. There was the World Standard Setters Meeting of the International Accounting Standards Board in London, the annual bash of one of the largest accountancy institutions in the world, a full day workshop on IFRS at the largest management association in India, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) summit on Higher Education, a week in Europe which included speaking at a conference, lecturing at a business school and a full day workshop on IFRS for management accountants, and recording sessions for business school students here in London.

At the conference in Europe, I spoke about “Trends and Challenges for businesses: Impact of International Financial Reporting”. Why do businesses need to understand IFRS?

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International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have in the past decade played an important role in connecting the global financial markets. In the ever increasing globalised world that we live in, IFRS provide a common platform to understand financial transactions and performance across borders.

IFRS were made mandatory for the listed companies in the European Union in 2005. Since then these global standards have been adopted by more than 100 countries. Most G20 members now require the use of IFRS, and the remaining major economies have established plans to migrate towards the use of IFRS.

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Saket, you are a Chartered Accountant, a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. You have earned your master’s degree in Multinational Accounting and Financial Management in UK. You are an expert in accounting with 15 years of experience. Let us start this interview with a very simple question. What attracted you to accounting?

“I was very good in mathematics in high school. I enjoy working with numbers and coming from a business family was always keen to work for myself in the long run. The accountancy qualification was the obvious choice as it would give me a professional qualification and also good insight into how businesses operate.”

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Global financial markets have in the last few years become increasingly interconnected. Financial events in one part of the world can have an immediate impact in other parts of the world. In such a globalised world, it is essential to understand the financial performance of different companies in different parts of the world through a common language.

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is a global financial reporting language used by companies in more than 100 countries. The G20 have since the financial crisis of 2008 called for a rapid move towards a single set of high quality global accounting standards. Most G20 members now require the use of IFRSs, and the remaining major economies have established plans to migrate towards the use of IFRSs.

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A few months back I attended the Regional Standard Setter’s Conference in New Delhi. During the course of two days, the member nations of South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) got together and discussed topics relating to financial reporting standard setting.

The hot topic was without doubt IFRS. There were presentations by the Chairman of the Accounting Standards Committee from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, highlighting the progress made, issues being faced and actions that need to be taken.

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What is IFRS? It is the global accounting and financial reporting language. The purpose of
IFRS is to ensure that a transaction is recognised in the same way, irrespective of what part of the world it happens in.

Uniformity in financial reporting ensures that if the same transaction was carried out in Delhi, Durban and Dallas, it is reported in the financial statements in the same way. IFRS helps investors better understand the financial statements. It increases the credibility of the companies (as they report in a language that is universal) and reduces the cost of raising capital.

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