The final Word
The take-away information for executives is-if you have not been paying attention to IFRS, leaving it to your accounting people, start getting to know it now. It has implications for your business beyond the reporting of numbers. If you are not obliged to report your financial numbers using IFRS, start learning about it anyway. It might apply to your company sooner than you think.
Investors take note-do not expect the Utopia of ultimate transparency and a world where everybody can make rational investment decisions based on full disclosure. But there is no doubt that IFRS imposes a new and more rigorous standard of care in the disclosure of financial information, and all the experts interviewed for this supplement agree that despite the significant bumps in the road to transition, it will be a good thing for Poland.
Potentially easy
How Polish companies and markets will respond under the weight of that large unwieldy volume known as IFRS remains to be seen. Some see it as being potentially easier, insofar as Poland has already done a lot to bring its accounting principles in line with international accounting principles.
"What we adopted in Poland brought us very close to international accounting standards. Other countries with deeper traditions have seldom gone the same distance as Poland; there is therefore more internal reluctance to change in those countries. So in some ways it might be easier for Poland to adopt IFRS," notes Joe Smoczyński of Moore Stephens.
Dariusz Choryło, director of investor relations for Bank Pekao SA and chairman of the Polish Investor Relations Institute, is optimistic about the change. "It will only serve to make Poland more attractive for a whole new group of foreign investors," says Choryło. "Many investors have looked at Polish accounting standards with suspicion. IFRS will take Poland out of the realm of an emerging market."
One thing is for sure-for hundreds of years, Poland has always confounded the experts, and come out alive and well. Despite the challenges, the chances are good that it will come through this sea change.
R.M.
Investors take note-do not expect the Utopia of ultimate transparency and a world where everybody can make rational investment decisions based on full disclosure. But there is no doubt that IFRS imposes a new and more rigorous standard of care in the disclosure of financial information, and all the experts interviewed for this supplement agree that despite the significant bumps in the road to transition, it will be a good thing for Poland.
Potentially easy
How Polish companies and markets will respond under the weight of that large unwieldy volume known as IFRS remains to be seen. Some see it as being potentially easier, insofar as Poland has already done a lot to bring its accounting principles in line with international accounting principles.
"What we adopted in Poland brought us very close to international accounting standards. Other countries with deeper traditions have seldom gone the same distance as Poland; there is therefore more internal reluctance to change in those countries. So in some ways it might be easier for Poland to adopt IFRS," notes Joe Smoczyński of Moore Stephens.
Dariusz Choryło, director of investor relations for Bank Pekao SA and chairman of the Polish Investor Relations Institute, is optimistic about the change. "It will only serve to make Poland more attractive for a whole new group of foreign investors," says Choryło. "Many investors have looked at Polish accounting standards with suspicion. IFRS will take Poland out of the realm of an emerging market."
One thing is for sure-for hundreds of years, Poland has always confounded the experts, and come out alive and well. Despite the challenges, the chances are good that it will come through this sea change.
R.M.
