InternationalAccountingStandardsandSelectedMiddle.docVIP

International Accounting Standards and Selected Middle East Stock Exchanges Besalet Basoglu and Ahmed Goma Manhattan College Email: bbasoglu@ Agoma@ JEL Classifications: G1, M4, O5 Keywords: Middle East Stock Exchanges, International Accounting Standards, GAAP, IASC 1. International Accounting Standards and Selected Middle East Stock Exchanges In an effort to generate comparable and reliable accounting information to help investors, creditors and others, each country has developed its own national financial accounting standards. These standards reflect the culture, history, and the characteristics of accounting problems facing that country. In some countries, the professional bodies formulate the financial accounting standards, while in many others governments and regulators establish these standards. As a result, much of the 20th century had witnessed a high degree of variation in the international accounting practices. International accounting diversity was one of the topics discussed in the tenth International Congress of Accountants in 1972. Accounting bodies of some countries attending the meeting were concerned in reducing the degree of variation in international accounting practices. As a result, in 1973, the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) was formed. The founders of this Committee included accounting bodies from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, West Germany, the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland. Harmonization of accounting standards around the world was one of the main objectives of this Committee. Harmonization can be defined as the process of reducing the degree of variation in international accounting practices. Once established, the IASC started the process of developing the International Accounting Standards (IASs). The first exposure draft and the first international accounting standard appeared in 1974. In its early years the IASC concentrated on the development of the international accounting st