UK: the limitations of accounting models and their impact on decisions - speech by FRC chief executive

Paul Boyle, the chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council, delivered a speech last week in which he set out his personal views on several matters including: [a] the purpose of accounting and the scale of the accounting challenge, [b] do we need accounting standards and who should set them? [c] the impact of accounting on decisions and [d] accounting aspects of the current financial crisis.

My Boyle observed that "there are widespread concerns about the complexity and relevance of financial statements" and explained that as part of the FRC's Complexity Project a consultation paper setting out the nature of the problem and providing potential solutions would be published later this month.