THE bulk of Australia’s listed companies are making good progress towards international accounting standards, according to research conducted by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
ASIC reviewed the narrative note disclosures made in the published financial reports of more than 1,100 listed entities with June 30 balance dates.
The review found that while the nature and extent of the disclosures varied, 99 per cent of the entities provided disclosure under accounting standard AASB 1047 ‘Disclosing the impacts of adopting Australian equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards.
Its other findings included:
95 per cent of the listed entities reviewed disclosed the key differences in accounting policies arising from the transition or positively stated they did not expect any major differences; and
Almost 10 per cent of the entities voluntarily quantified the financial effect of some or all key differences in accounting policy they had identified and disclosed. That quantification is not required until the June 30 2005 end of year reports.
ASIC has written to the 11 entities that failed to make the necessary disclosure, requiring them to disclose the required information to the Australian Stock Exchange immediately.
