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Global rules made in London? Brussels sniffs conspiracy

Christopher Fildes

Wednesday, 11th June 2008

Christopher Fildes on international accounting standards

How gratifying. One set of rules for the whole world, and all of them springing from a fountainhead in Cannon Street, London EC4. There will have been no such display of global authority since the sun set on the British empire. Washington is warming to it. Brussels is restive.

These are the rules that set the standards for companies reporting on their financial affairs to their shareholders. They come from the International Accounting Standards Board, and they are accepted in more and more centres where shares are traded, from London to Beijing. The world’s biggest economy is the outstanding exception, but now the Americans are nerving themselves to fold their own ‘Generally Accepted Accounting Principles’ into the IASB’s.

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