The quest for clarity in corporate financial statements (TT Sep09 p22-23)

After years of debate, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) have published a joint discussion paper on the presentation of financial statements. The paper proposes a revolutionary change to the format of financial statements that, in our opinion, would have equally significant implications for the analysis of financial statement information. We question the need for such a complete replacement of the format of company financial statements when enhancements could be made to the existing format that might better resolve current concerns.