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Union Bank of Nigeria Plc said it has taken steps towards implementing the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in its
operations, ahead of the 2012 deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
IFRS are guidelines and rules set by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) that companies and organisations can follow when compiling financial statements. The creation of the international standards allows investors, organisations and governments to compare the IFRS-supported financial statements with greater ease.
A statement from the Principal Manager, Corporate Affairs, Union Bank, Mr. Francis Barde, Thursday, said the bank, last week, exposed its directors, top management and staff to one week intensive workshop on the global financial reporting format. It said that the programme was facilitated by reputable international experts.
Executive Director, Commercial banking, South, Mr. Adekunle Adeosun, was quoted to have said that the workshop was aimed at getting the bank ready for the IFRS. He stated that participants were drawn not only from finance and planning/strategy but from different relevant disciplines to understand and appreciate issues governing the new reporting standard.
“The facilitators emphasised that the idea behind IFRS was to develop, in the public interest, a single set of high quality, understandable and enforceable global accounting standards. The standards will require high quality, transparent and comparable information and financial statements to help participants in various capital markets of the world and other users of information to make economic decisions,” it added.
It stressed that the IFRS will become easier for investors from any part of the world to invest in the country because they speak the same financial reporting language.
It said: “It is significant to note that Union Bank is getting ready to adopt the IFRS in line with the apex bank’s directive in 2009, when it issued a format aimed at enhancing transparency and ensure standardization in financial reporting standards by banks and discount
houses.”