The ASC develops, reviews, amends and approves accounting standards for companies, charities, co-operative societies and societies, taking into account:
- The information needs of the stakeholders of the entities;
- Facilitation of comparability, disclosure and transparency;
- Compatibility with relevant international standards; and
- Singapore’s reputation as a trusted international business and financial hub.
The broad policy intention is to adopt the IFRS Accounting Standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Convergence with international accounting standards would achieve greater transparency and comparability of financial information among companies and help lower compliance costs for companies investing in Singapore as well as local companies going overseas. However, while the ASC will track closely the introduction of new IFRS Accounting Standards for possible adoption in Singapore, it will also take into account the local economic and business circumstances and context, as well as the entity to which the IFRS Accounting Standards would apply to.
The ASC adopts a formal and rigorous process in making or formulating accounting standards so as to ensure that the accounting standards made or formulated are of a consistent high quality. The various sectors and stakeholder groups are all given adequate opportunities to express their views.
The ASC contributes actively to the IASB, through proactively surfacing views relating to local specific issues on the IASB’s projects for the IASB’s attention and consideration. These include participation at standard-setters meetings, reviewing and commenting on relevant IASB’s projects, and working with the IASB liaison representatives. The ASC also sees the benefit of collaborating with national standard-setters in the region, such as through the Asian-Oceanian Standard-Setters Group.