Australian loan loss accounting changes draw fire

Accounting authorities in Australia are opposed to loan loss changes proposed by international standard setters. Critics claim the new rules are complex, ineffective, costly and – above all – unnecessary. But they may not have much choice. Wietske Blees reports

There are any number of countries around the world where post-crisis reform looks like a case of fixing something that isn’t broken. When the country is Australia and the reform in question is the overhaul of loan-loss accounting – an imperative set by politicians in the US and Europe, which will be exported around the world – it starts looking like a case of breaking something that was working perfectly well, according to critics that include the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) and