Harmonica
With the rapid growth of international capital markets and increased cross-border financing, the debate over harmonization has intensified. Supporters of has intensified reason that harmonization of accounting standards is necessary to produce comparability across financial statements worldwide. Opponents of harmonization argue that differences in financial reporting are justified due to the differing economic, political ,legal ,and cultural environments across countries, making the adoption of a global standard not truly valuable to users of financial statements.
1.you are on the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and must make a presentation to a national capital market regulator (e.g., the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or the Japanese Ministry of finance) national accounting standard –setter (e.g., the Canadian Accounting Standards Board, or the Nigerian Financial Accounting Standards Board ) stating why harmonization of accounting standards is desir-able. You have one Week to prepare for these presentations, and you are drafting your speech. Make your case, pointing out at least three arguments in favor of harmonization.
2.You are a Financial analyst and consultant to Merrill Lynch based in the United Kingdom. You job is to recommend which stocks the company should include in its portfolio. Over the last 15 years, You have analyzed hundreds of corporate annual reports and have gained a great wealth of knowledge about Japanese and German accounting Standards, along with their economic, political, legal, and cultural environment s. You boss is convinced that international accounting standards will soon emerge as the global standard and, conse-quently, has asked you to use only IAS-based financial statements in your analysis. Make a case on why using only IAS-based standards may not be an appropriate measure of the operating performance of a company.
3.Based upon your responses to both scenarios, should harmonization be pursued? If yes, to what extent? Explain.
4.Penny Saver
Aaron Duley, the CEO of Nickel Corporation, was discussing with his CFO, Michael Cucciare, whether the company should adopt international accounting standards for financial reporting purposes. Nickel Corporation is based in a country that permits the use of either international accounting standards or domestic GAAP.
“Michael, reporting under our domestic GAAP is much more costly to the company than reporting under international accounting standards. I understand that fewer disclosures are required under international accounting standards. Moreover, international accounting standards provide more choices when it comes to applying accounting methods to our financial statements to produce the most favorable results. And , to be honest with you, the company is going to have to report its first operating loss in over 15 years if we continue to report under our current domestic GAAP. I certainly don’t want that to happen while I’m CEO. ”
“I hear you, Aaron, but converting to international accounting standards might look bad to investors. What if the public finds out that we were trying to hide the operating loss or switched to international accounting standards to manipulate the bottom line? That could prove even more costly in the long run, while saving the company pennies now.”
1.Referring to the conversation above, should Nickel Corporation prepare this year’s financial statements in accordance with its domestic GAAP, or use international accounting standards? Justify your recommendation and address any concerns.
2.Assume you are the CFO of Nickel Corporation. How would you reply to the CEO’s suggestion? Summarize your response including why you opted for or against the adoption of international accounting standards.
3.In your opinion, is there anything ethically wrong with the CEO’s rationale for the adoption of international accounting standards? Explain.
4.AS Nickel Corporation’s auditor, would you agree to the switch to international accounting standards?