International financial reporting standards: an indicator of high quality?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the academic literature on the quality of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), formerly International Accounting Standards (IAS), which are poised to be the universal accounting language to be adopted by all companies regardless of their place of domicile. Design/methodology/approach The methodology used in this study is archival. The authors evaluate the academic empirical literature on the quality of IFRS. Findings With the world's capital markets becoming more and more inextricably linked, we believe IFRS represents a single set of high‐quality, globally accepted accounting standards that has the potential to significantly improve financial reporting comparability among companies on a worldwide basis. Originality/value It will be difficult to find any time in recent history when financial reporting has been catapulted to such enormous prominence. Some would argue that better reporting would have played a vital role in preventing the complete collapse of the world's financial system. This paper provides valuable input to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which has recently completed a roadmap, creating the potential for all US public companies to be required to file their financial statements in accordance with IFRS by 2014.