Financial Statement Effects Of Adopting International Accounting Standards PDF Download

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is said to produce higher quality accounting information, greater comparability of accounts, greater consistency of accounting processes, greater transparency between firms and lower costs of capital. However, there are arguments against the adoption of IFRS. The first objective of this study is to examine the accounting quality of IFRS earnings and equity, compared to the accounting quality of earnings and equity prepared under previous standards; that is GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) for United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Singapore firms. The second objective is to investigate the effect of IFRS on the accounts (earnings and equity) of the average listed firm in United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore. These three countries are chosen because of their comparable historical Anglo-accounting system roots, but deviations in approaches during the accounting standards harmonization era. This study focuses on the initial adoption of IFRS, which is the most appropriate time to measure and fully capture the impact of the changes of accounting standards from GAAP to IFRS. The reason for this is because IFRS 1 First Time Adoption of International Financial Accounting Standards states that firms have to show reconciliations between previous GAAP and IFRS on (a) equity at the date of transition and the end of the latest period presented in the entity's most recent annual financial statements under GAAP, and (b) profit or loss of the latest period of the entity's most recent annual financial statements, with supplementary explanations necessary for understanding the transition. The results of this study shows the accounts of United Kingdom firms are most affected by the adoption of IFRSs when compared to Hong Kong and Singapore firms. Results also reveal that there is little evidence to conclude that financial statements prepared under IFRS are more market value relevant than financial statements prepared under GAAP.There is also little evidence to conclude that financial statements prepared under IFRSs are incrementally value relevant relative to financial statements prepared under GAAP. The conclusions are that countries that historically chose their GAAPs on selective IASs prior to the adoption of IFRSs were less affected by adjustments to companies equity and earnings. But these adjustments, even in the less harmonized companies in the United Kingdom, were not value relevant to the equity market.