ONE ASPECT of the financial crisis to receive little critical scrutiny has been the role of accountancy firms in auditing companies where, in some instances, they have given a misleading picture of a company’s affairs. Anglo Irish Bank provides the most blatant example.
Here, a bank that reported large profits in 2008, recorded a €15 billion loss just a year later. Company law is meant to ensure the audited accounts of a company give shareholders and the public a true and fair view of its financial state. Yet, while Anglo’s audit complied with accounting standards, they failed to reflect its quite unsustainable financial position.
In Anglo’s case, as with the other domestic banks, soaring loan losses were rapidly accumulating on their loan books. But as these bad loans were not recognised in the audited accounts of those banks, they were not revealed to shareholders. How can this happen?
In 2005 EU-listed companies were required to adopt new accounting rules – the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This involved a major change in the treatment of loan losses which are only recognised when incurred, or realised – when the borrower defaults and stops repayment. No provision is made in the accounts for expected loan losses.
These limited rules on disclosure have created huge and continuing uncertainty about the likely level of loans losses hidden in the balance sheet of banks. Under IFRS rules, bank audits are now seen as less reliable, and command less shareholder and public confidence. How unreliable is best illustrated by the domestic banks. When finance minister Brian Lenihan received a report on Irish bank losses – which greatly underestimated their size – this was based on IFRS figures. The new accountancy standard on how loan losses are treated is seen as less prudent than the one it replaced.
In Britain, growing dissatisfaction with the role of accountancy firms in the financial crisis last year prompted a House of Lords committee to investigate auditing practices. The committee found the introduction of IFRS had lowered audit standards, encouraged auditors to adopt a box-ticking approach, and greatly reduced scope for prudent scepticism in reaching a true and fair view of a company’s financial position. Any change in accounting standards will require international negotiation. However, given Ireland’s costly banking experience, the Government has every reason to lobby for major reform in IFRS rules that so badly served shareholders and taxpayers.