Investor Protections, Accounting and Corporate Governance

Abstract

The creation of Accounting Standards Boards in many jurisdictions in the years since the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) was created in 1973 has led to the development and widespread adoption of what is called the conceptual framework of financial reporting. The conceptual framework aspires to provide the intellectual basis for setting accounting standards. It is a work in progress. Development continues today mainly at the FASB in Connecticut and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in London. The conceptual framework is a compromise between what currently represents best accounting practice, still based largely on the historic cost accounting convention, but varying quite considerably across the world, and what many accountant standard setters aspire to, a universal system of current value accounting. The fact that financial reporting is not an exact science but is in fact evolving rapidly makes discussion of accounting's role in corporate governance that much more difficult.