Formal Participation in the EFRAG’s Consultation Processes: The Role of European National Standard-Setters

While the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) considers European national standard-setters (NSSs) as close partners that play a vital role in its legitimacy, empirical evidence on EFRAG’s consultation processes and the involvement of NSSs therein remains scarce. We use a multi-issue/multi-period approach to investigate the formal participation in EFRAG’s consultation processes. By examining 2,102 comment letters submitted to EFRAG in the 2002–2015 period, we find that NSSs typically outweigh other stakeholder groups in terms of level of participation across stages of the consultation process and project topics. Although NSSs’ level of participation is rather stable over time, it significantly varies across European countries. We also provide a recent classification of European NSSs and show that NSSs’ level of participation varies by their institutional status and is the highest for private NSSs. Our findings have implications for aspects of the legitimacy of both EFRAG and NSSs and shed light on the role of intermediaries in international accounting standard-setting.     

Preferred reporting items for studies mapping onto preference-based outcome measures: The MAPS statement

Abstract

‘Mapping’ onto generic preference-based outcome measures is increasingly being used as a means of generating health utilities for use within health economic evaluations. Despite publication of technical guides for the conduct of mapping research, guidance for the reporting of mapping studies is currently lacking. The MAPS (MApping onto Preference-based measures reporting Standards) statement is a new checklist, which aims to promote complete and transparent reporting of mapping studies. The primary audiences for the MAPS statement are researchers reporting mapping studies, the funders of the research, and peer reviewers and editors involved in assessing mapping studies for publication.

A de novo list of 29 candidate reporting items and accompanying explanations was created by a working group comprised of six health economists and one Delphi methodologist. Following a two-round, modified Delphi survey with representatives from academia, consultancy, health technology assessment agencies and the biomedical journal editorial community, a final set of 23 items deemed essential for transparent reporting, and accompanying explanations, was developed. The items are contained in a user friendly 23 item checklist. They are presented numerically and categorised within six sections, namely: (i) title and abstract; (ii) introduction; (iii) methods; (iv) results; (v) discussion; and (vi) other. The MAPS statement is best applied in conjunction with the accompanying MAPS explanation and elaboration document.

It is anticipated that the MAPS statement will improve the clarity, transparency and completeness of reporting of mapping studies. To facilitate dissemination and uptake, the MAPS statement is being co-published by seven health economics and quality of life journals, and broader endorsement is encouraged. The MAPS working group plans to assess the need for an update of the reporting checklist in five years’ time.     

Prospects: A Missing Piece of Current Selling Price Reporting

This article seeks to provide insights about a conceptual objection to current selling price reporting: that, in its determination of asset amounts, such reporting ignores the reporting entity's prospects (potential, promise, outlook) for achievement of possession of or of access to consumer general purchasing power beyond its achievement to date of such possession or access. The article argues that financial reports should provide (a) information that is helpful to the users to evaluate the prospects of the reporting entity, including financial statement information based on current selling price reporting, (b) a section of the income statement presenting amounts spent during the reporting period to enhance the reporting entity's prospects, and (c) various kinds of supplementary information to aid the evaluations, such as the kinds discussed in this article.     

Goodwill under IFRS: Relevance and disclosures in an unfavorable environment

The accounting treatment of purchased goodwill under IFRS has been severely criticized due to the extensive use of fair value accounting. The purpose of this study is to enrich the ongoing debate upon this issue by drawing attention to the market valuation implications of goodwill in a country outside the Anglo-Saxon accounting paradigm, where the application of fair value accounting has been seen as more problematic. The results indicate that, in the case of purchased goodwill, fair value accounting generates relevant accounting numbers but only in companies that comply highly with IFRS disclosure requirements.     

征信系统的发展脉络与信息化进程

银行信贷登记咨询系统已于2009年5月22日在全国范围内停止使用,宣告着以贷款卡为标志的银行信贷登记咨询系统时代的结束。本文从新旧系统发展脉络、功能差异以及两大征信系统(企业及个人)等多方面对我国金融信息化进程进行全面梳理及回顾,以期为下阶段社会征信体系建设的推进提供经验。     

基于财务报告导向的我国内部控制鉴证研究

随着2008年6月《企业内部控制基本规范》和配套指引《鉴证指引》征求意见稿相继出台，并要求从2009年7月1日起在上市公司范围内实施，我国的内部控制鉴证事业取得了实质性进展，我国的内部控制监管环境也发生了很大的变化。由此，本文首先论述了基于财务报告内部控制鉴证的概念、鉴证对象以及应确定的鉴证范围，继而又分析了财务报告内部控制鉴证应遵循的标准等理论问题。认为我国实施内部控制鉴证服务要以财务报告内部控制为主要范围，并对财务报告内部控制发表鉴证意见为目标，遵循一定的标准开展内控鉴证工作。     

Institutional Investors’ Reaction to SEC Concerns about IFRS and US GAAP Reporting

For the period of 2006 to 2008, we collect Comment Letters issued by the SEC that question the application of US GAAP by US firms or the application of IFRS by European firms registered with the SEC. We investigate whether institutional investors react to the letters by changing their holdings and whether their responses vary for US registrants and European registrants. We do this via a treatment‐effects model in which we test the hypothesis that institutional investors rebalance their portfolio holdings because they view Comment Letters as informative public signals. We find that institutional investors reduce their equity holdings when firms receive SEC Comment Letters, and their negative reactions are most marked for low turnover institutional investors, who we use to represent those informed investors most prepared to incur costs to closely monitor firms. Next, while noting that the number of Letters questioning application of IFRS are smaller in number relative to those questioning application of US GAAP, we investigate whether there are different reactions to Comment Letters questioning different standards. We show that there is a higher probability of the SEC questioning the application of IFRS as compared to US GAAP. After controlling for firm‐specific conditions that impact the issuance of a Comment Letter, we show that this higher probability has economic significance because institutional investors’ react more negatively to Comment Letters that question the application of IFRS as compared to US GAAP. A content analysis confirms the economic importance of the Comment Letters. We find that in almost half of all IFRS cases the Comment Letters request amendments to financial statements.     

欧盟对金融行业个人数据保护的立法和启示——兼论《征信管理条例(征求意见稿)》的修改

对金融行业的个人数据保护,欧盟面临的主要问题是:在保护消费者基本权利和促进商品、人员和服务的自由流动之间寻求平衡。欧盟对金融行业个人数据保护的立法包括三个层次:通过宪法性渊源,确定了个人数据受保护的基本人权地位;一般性立法和特别法。正在制订中的《征信管理条例》应当在立法理念、个人信息分类、各主体权利义务配置等方面对欧盟的立法进行借鉴。     

法律高管对财务报告质量的影响研究

以沪深两市2004-2011年上市公司作为研究样本,从法律这一全新视角实证检验了高管法律背景对财务报告质量的影响。研究结果表明：法律高管与财务报告质量显著正相关;进一步研究发现,国有企业和非国有企业中均存在上述结论,并且非国有企业中法律高管对改善财务报告质量的作用更显著。最后,针对实证研究得出的结果及财务报告的现状为股东提供可参考的政策建议。     

Exploring the Relationship between Sustainability Reporting and Sustainability Management Practices

There has been a dramatic uptake of sustainability reporting (SR) and sustainability management practices over the last two decades, in turn raising questions about the relationship between external disclosure and internal practice of corporate sustainability. Previous literature has emphasized the role of external pressures in driving SR adoption. However, as recent practitioner surveys also identify the existence of internal motives for SR, a more comprehensive analysis of this relationship is needed. In order to address this issue, we develop a framework accounting for four company‐level SR configurations, resulting from different levels of importance of external and internal motives for SR. Then, four exploratory cases serve to illustrate these configurations and to describe the respective roles of SR at the company level. As considerable diversity among these SR practices is found, our findings point to the relevance of both external and internal motives in understanding SR contribution to corporate sustainability. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment