IFRS Foundation

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IFRS Foundation

Purpose	Development and promotion of accounting standards[1]
Headquarters	Columbus House 7 Westferry Circus, Canary Wharf, London, E14 4HD  UK
Chair of the Trustees	Erkki Liikanen
Managing Director	Michel Madelain
Website	www.ifrs.org
Formerly called	IASC Foundation

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The International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation or IFRS Foundation (sometimes IFRSF) is a nonprofit organization that oversees financial reporting standard-setting. Its main objectives include the development and promotion of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), through the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) for accounting standards and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) for sustainability-related standards.

The IFRS Foundation states that its mission is to develop IFRS Standards that bring transparency, accountability and efficiency to financial markets around the world, and that their work serves the public interest by fostering trust, growth and long-term financial stability in the global economy.^[1]

The foundation is governed by a group of 22 trustees,^[2] themselves under the oversight of a "Monitoring Board" of public authorities.^[3]

In 2001, the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC, established 1973) reformed itself under a new dual structure consisting mainly of an independent standard-setting body, the International Accounting Standards Board, and a foundation that appoints and funds the IASB, initially named the IASC Foundation. The IASB assumed accounting standard-setting responsibilities from the IASC on 1 March 2001. The IASC Foundation changed its name to IFRS Foundation on 1 July 2010.

During the first twenty years of activity, the IASB was the foundation's dominant standard-setting body. In 2021, the IFRS Foundation established a second standard-setting board under itself, the International Sustainability Standards Board.

The IFRS Foundation hosts the IASB (which issues IFRS Accounting Standards) and the ISSB (which issues IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards). A separate committee, the IFRS Interpretations Committee, supports the consistent application of IFRS Accounting Standards by developing interpretations, which are documents that complement and clarify specific standards and form part of the IFRS Standards set, and publishing agenda decisions, which are explanations of why further work on a Standard isn't required. Separately, the IASB sets out IFRS for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) to better meet the specific needs of SMEs than is possible with the full IFRS Standards, which are intended primarily for publicly listed entities.^[4] The IASB also develops and maintains the IFRS Taxonomy,^[5] consisting of elements that can be used to tag disclosures in financial statements prepared using IFRS Standards. Tagging makes information computer-readable and, therefore, more accessible to investors and other users of electronic company financial reports. The eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is used to represent and deliver IFRS Taxonomy content.

The IFRS Foundation is funded in part by country-specific funding regimes involving stakeholder groups, or levies and other contributions through regulatory authorities, and also by self-generated income.^[7] As of 2024, its managing director is Michel Madelain.^[8]

The foundation is governed by a board of 22 trustees,^[2] including, as of 2024:

• Erkki Liikanen (Chair), previously a governor of the International Monetary Fund and a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank;^[9]
• Teresa Ko (Vice-Chair), a Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's China Chairman and Senior Partner;
• Maria Theofilaktidis (Vice-Chair), Executive Vice President and Chief Auditor at Scotiabank.

The trustees' responsibilities^[10] include appointing members to and establishing the operating procedures of the IASB, Interpretations Committee and Advisory Council, and approving the foundation's budget. They are accountable to a monitoring board of public authorities, the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board.

• Paul Volcker (2000–January 2006)^[11]
• Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa (January–May 2006)
• Philip A. Laskawy (May 2006–December 2007)
• Gerrit Zalm (December 2007–June 2010)
• Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa (June–December 2010)
• Robert R. Glauber and Tsuguoki Fujinuma (acting co-chairs, December 2010–December 2011)
• Michel Prada (December 2011–October 2018)
• Erkki Liikanen (October 2018–July 2021)
• Andreas Barckow (July 2021–present)

• Financial Accounting Foundation in the United States

• Official website