The move towards global standards
The goal of the IFRS Foundation and the IASB is to develop, in the public interest, a single set of high-quality, understandable, enforceable and globally accepted financial reporting standards based upon clearly articulated principles.
In pursuit of this goal, the IASB works in close cooperation with stakeholders around the world, including investors, national standard-setters, regulators, auditors, academics, and others who have an interest in the development of high-quality global standards.
Progress toward this goal has been steady. All major economies have established time lines to converge with or adopt IFRSs in the near future. The international convergence efforts of the organisation are also supported by the Group of 20 Leaders (G20) who, at their September 2009 meeting in Pittsburgh, US, called on international accounting bodies to redouble their efforts to achieve this objective within the context of their independent standard-setting process. In particular, they asked the IASB and the US FASB to complete their convergence project.
| Country |
Status for listed companies as of December 2011 |
| Argentina |
Required for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2012 |
| Australia |
Required for all private sector reporting entities and as the basis for public sector reporting since 2005 |
| Brazil |
Required for consolidated financial statements of banks and listed companies from 31 December 2010 and for individual company accounts progressively since January 2008 |
| Canada |
Required from 1 January 2011 for all listed entities and permitted for private sector entities including not-for-profit organisations |
| China |
Substantially converged national standards |
| European Union |
All member states of the EU are required to use IFRSs as adopted by the EU for listed companies since 2005 |
| France |
Required via EU adoption and implementation process since 2005 |
| Germany |
Required via EU adoption and implementation process since 2005 |
| India |
India is converging with IFRSs at a date to be confirmed. |
| Indonesia |
Convergence process ongoing; a decision about a target date for full compliance with IFRSs is expected to be made in 2012 |
| Italy |
Required via EU adoption and implementation process since 2005 |
| Japan |
Permitted from 2010 for a number of international companies; decision about mandatory adoption by 2016 expected around 2012 |
| Mexico |
Required from 2012 |
| Republic of Korea |
Required from 2011 |
| Russia |
Required from 2012 |
| Saudi Arabia |
Required for banking and insurance companies; full convergence with IFRSs currently under consideration |
| South Africa |
Required for listed entities since 2005 |
| Turkey |
Required for listed entities since 2005 |
| United Kingdom |
Required via EU adoption and implementation process since 2005 |
| United States |
Allowed for foreign issuers in the US since 2007; US SEC committed to global accounting standards and IFRS best placed to meet that need in the US (see SEC February 2010 statement on global accounting standards), awaiting decision regarding use of IFRSs for domestic companies |
NOTE: The list refers to listed companies only. The table is not an authoritative assessment of the use of IFRS in those countries. In the majority of cases, the information has been provided by the relevant national authorities or is based on information that is publicly available. For definitive information on the use of IFRSs in any particular country or countries contact the relevant national authority or authorities directly.