Adoption of IFRS in the EU: Legislative Background PwC
EU Regulation (EC)1606/2002 passed 19 July 2002 Article 4 Consolidated accounts of publicly traded companies For each financial year starting on or after 1 January 2005, companies governed by the law of a Member State shall prepare their consolidated accounts in conformity with the international accounting standards adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6(2) if, at their balance sheet date, their securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market of any Member State within the meaning of Article 1(13) of Council Directive 93/22/EEC of 10 May 1993 on investment services in the securities field(9). Seite 2
Listed European companies to comply with IFRS in their group financial statements in 2005 at the latest Implemented in Germany through BilReG (Dec. 2004) Listed European company : - Incorporated in a European member state - Securities have been admitted to trading on a regulated market of any member state or which have been offered to the public on such a market ( 315a (2) HGB) - Regulated market as defined in 2 (5) WpHG: Amtlicher Markt, Geregelter Markt, but not Open Market (Freiverkehr) Seite 3
Limited exception at the suggestion of committee of EU finance ministers (ECOFIN): Implementation delayed until 2007 for companies: -that already use other international standards at the date of the regulation for the purpose of a listing outside a regulated market in the EU. For example, those that already use US GAAP for their primary financial statements. -that have issued debt, but not equity, securities on a regulated market of a member state Seite 4
Member states have the option to extend the IFRS requirements to: Individual parent company accounts of listed companies Group and individual accounts of unlisted companies (where appropriate for certain industries) In Germany: Option of HGB or IFRS for all other group accounts ( 315a (3) HGB) Large companies: option of preparing additional individual IFRS accounts for filing purposes only ( 325 (2a) HGB); individual HGB accounts still required for purposes of tax and commercial law (determination of distributable reserves) Withdrawal of 292a HGB Seite 5
Legal form Limited companies (ca. 5,500 AGs / 450,000 GmbHs) Partnerships & Individual traders (ca. 360,000 German partnerships / 2 million EU-wide) listed unlisted listed unlisted (ca. 900 AGs) Group accounts IFRS required IFRS optional IFRS required IFRS optional Individual HGB required HGB required accounts Additional IFRS accounts allowable for filing purposes Seite 6
Interim financial statements in 2005 in accordance with IFRS? No requirement under IFRS or German law Deutsche Börse: from 2006 for companies applying IFRS for first time in 2005 annual accounts Problem: Comparatives for previous year (particularly P&L) Comparative IFRS figures for 2004 must be available in time for publication of the first 2005 interim report at the latest Application of new/amended Standards (e.g. Improvements Project) compulsory in IFRS interim financial statements in 2005 Seite 7
IFRS und US-GAAP financial statements of DAX companies (Financial year 2004) Adidas-Salomon Allianz* Altana * Bayer* Bayr. Hypo- und Vereinsbank BMW Commerzbank Deutsche Börse Linde IFRS "befreiend" Deutsche Post Henkel Lufthansa MAN Metro Münchener Rück RWE Schering* TUI "befreiend" Continental Daimler-Chrysler Deutsche Bank E.On Fresenius Infineon SAP Siemens ThyssenKrupp US-GAAP VW *US GAAP for US listing DAX: 19x IFRS 11x US-GAAP Reconciliation from HGB BASF Deutsche Telekom Seite 8
Standard-setting (endorsement) IASB IFRIC EFRAG (advises EC) EU Comm. EU Parliament ARC Endorsed Standards and Interpretations Standards application Issuers Auditors EU national enforcers CESR - EECS IFRIC IFRIC Interpretations IFRIC clarifications Seite 9
Endorsement mechanism Standards endorsed by Accounting Regulatory Committee to date (month of formal adoption by EU shown): Sep. 2003: All IASs and Interpretations except for IAS 32 and IAS 39 and SIC-5, SIC-16 and SIC-17 April 2004: IFRS 1 Nov. 2004: IAS 39, with two carve-outs : Full Fair Value Option Portfolio hedging of core deposits Dec. 2004: Improvements Project, IFRSs 3 5, IAS 32, IAS 36, IAS 38, IFRIC 1 Feb. 2005: IFRS 2 (issued Feb. 2004) July 2005: IFRIC 2 (issued Nov. 2004) Oct. 2005: Amendments to IAS 39 (issued June 2005) and SIC-12 (Dec. 2004) Seite 10
Further information: http://www.iasb.org/ http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/accounting/ias_en.htm http://www.efrag.org http://www.frep.info http://www.cesr-eu.org Seite 11