CHARTERED Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) chief executive officer Ainslie van Onselen is calling for a comprehensive review of international accounting standards to better support small and medium-sized enterprises. Speaking to The Fiji Times during the 50th Fiji Institute of Chartered Accountants (FICA) annual congress last week, Ms van Onselen said there was a critical gap in current global accounting framework that often only favour large corporations and major financial institutions.
“Our advocacy also often highlights that the international standards need to be fit for purpose and allow for local or regional differences where they may occur,” Ms van Onselen said.
“In terms of fit for purpose, in the recent years, some of the standards have been, I think, developed for big firms or big organisations and I don’t think that should be the starting point.
“I think international standards should think and ensure that the standards can be applied by small medium practices and small medium enterprises.”
She said international standard setting bodies needed to look and ensure that there is impact effect analysis conducted.
“Are the jurisdictions that they’re asking around the world, are they actually adopting the standards, and if not, why not?
“And are the standards able to be adopted by small, medium practices? That, I think, really has to be a focus for international standard setters going forward.
“I think at the moment, the pendulum swung a little bit too far to the larger firms or larger organisations, and we need to bring that back a bit.”
Ms van Onselen said if this was considered, investors would have more confidence in investing in smaller economies.
Note: This article was first published on the print version of the Fiji Times dated June 13, 2025
