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France. IFRS and France: A Marriage of Convenience

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IFRS in a Global World

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Abstract

This contribution aims to provide a chronological examination of the relationship between France and IFRS/IAS, which appears to have been (and still be) very turbulent. We shall seek to describe this relationship through several themes: what was France’s position before the early 2000s and the arrival of EU regulation 1606/2002? What happened after that regulation was adopted? What role did accounting standardization play, especially France’s Accounting Standards Authority (ANC) which was set up in 2010? What stance did French academics take in the debates over the role of the IASB?

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Notes

  1. 1.

    On April 2001, the IASB approved that “all standards and interpretations issued under previous constitutions continue to be applicable unless and until they are amended or withdrawn”. These previous standards adopted by the IASC are named “International Accounting Standards” (IAS). The IASB also announced in April 2001 that the IASC Foundation trustees had agreed that accounting standards issued by the IASB would be designated “International Financial Reporting Standards” (IFRS). To reduce the possibility of confusion for the reader, following Stolowy et al. (2013, p. 165) we use the term “IFRS/IAS” to mean all international accounting standards. We thus make no distinction between IFRS in the strict sense (i.e., standards adopted by the IASB after 2001) and IAS (i.e., standards adopted by the IASC before 2001, some of which have since been revised, amended, or otherwise reformatted by the IASB).

  2. 2.

    For a presentation of IFRS/IAS in French, see Raffournier (2010) and Obert (2013); for an English presentation see Picker et al. (2012).

  3. 3.

    Referring to the first discussions on the application of international accounting standards in France.

  4. 4.

    COB, in its “Annual report”, 1995, p. 105.

  5. 5.

    Now renamed AMF (Autorité des Marchés Financiers): the French equivalent to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

  6. 6.

    COB, in its “Bulletin”, No. 321, February 1998, p. 3.

  7. 7.

    This assertion by the COB is a simplification to say the least. It is perhaps explained by the COB’s aim to help French firms by making their financial reporting work easier.

  8. 8.

    Formed by the same law of April 6, 1998.

  9. 9.

    Insurance companies were also against the international standards on financial instruments.

  10. 10.

    http://www.fbf.fr/fr/files/87JBNH/Memo_FBF_revision_projet_normes_IAS_2002_EN.pdf (Last retrieved: December 21, 2015).

  11. 11.

    http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/accounting/docs/ias/ias-use-of-options_en.pdf (Last retrieved: December 21, 2015).

  12. 12.

    All translations of documents for which no existing translation is available are our own.

  13. 13.

    This possibility applies to all companies in some countries and certain companies in others.

  14. 14.

    The ANC website (http://www.anc.gouv.fr/cms/accueil/for-the-english-readers.html), which has several documents in English, does not give an official translation of the organisation’s own name: its English home page is headed “The French accounting standards setter: The Autorité des normes comptables (ANC)”. In the rest of this paper we use the acronym ANC.

  15. 15.

    Chairman Haas passed away on May 8, 2014, aged 51. A new Chairman, Patrick de Cambourg, coming from the accounting profession, has been appointed on March 3, 2015.

  16. 16.

    Source: http://www.anc.gouv.fr/cms/accueil/plans-strategiques-et-rapports.html// (Last retrieved: December 21, 2015).

  17. 17.

    « Congrès national des Experts-comptables de justice ».

  18. 18.

    Source: http://www.anc.gouv.fr/cms/accueil/publications.html (Last retrieved: December 21, 2015).

  19. 19.

    Source: http://www.anc.gouv.fr/cms/accueil/plans-strategiques-et-rapports.html (Last retrieved: December 21, 2015).

  20. 20.

    This article was later published in an English translation (Burlaud and Colasse 2011a), with permission from the journal Comptabilité – Contrôle – Audit.

  21. 21.

    This article was later published in an English translation (Danjou and Walton 2012), with permission from the journal Comptabilité – Contrôle – Audit.

  22. 22.

    For the original article in French, see: http://business.lesechos.fr/directions-financieres/comptabilite-et-gestion/normes-comptables/10-idees-fausses-sur-les-ifrs-4686.php# (Last retrieved: December 21, 2015). For the English translation, see: http://www.iasplus.com/en/news/2013/02/danjou-misperceptions-paper (Last retrieved: December 21, 2015).

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Acknowledgments

The author thanks Ann Gallon for her much appreciated editorial help. He also acknowledges insightful comments from Michel Lebas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HEC Paris, Jouy-en-Josas, France

    Hervé Stolowy

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  1. Hervé Stolowy
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Correspondence to Hervé Stolowy .

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  1. Paris-Dauphine University, Paris cedex 16, France

    Didier Bensadon

  2. Paris-Sud University, Sceaux, France

    Nicolas Praquin

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Stolowy, H. (2016). France. IFRS and France: A Marriage of Convenience. In: Bensadon, D., Praquin, N. (eds) IFRS in a Global World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28225-1_18

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