Need for Harmonization of International Accounting Standards

International harmonization of accounting standards is not a new initiative. The concept of convergence first arose in the late 1950s in response to post World War II economic integration and related increases in cross border capital flows. Initial efforts focused on harmonization reducing differences among the accounting principles used around the world by developing a single set of high quality, international accounting standards that would be used around the world, to give it a professional shape and essence. Accountants all over the world feel the need to shorten the gap among different streams of accounting practices through harmonization. However, we have observed a couple of accounting diversity owing to information asymmetry and lack of uniformity, for example, the US GAAP. This diversity posed as threats towards harmonization of accounting practices. The profession however has also witnessed a greater achievement in recent years in the process of international harmonization of accounting standards. The IASC and its successor and the IFAC have played a significant role in this regard. In know distant time, we will observe that accounting world is controlled and guided by a single set of standards giving it a status of legal discipline in true sense. The study specific objective focuses on the international harmonization of accounting standards. In carrying out the study, a qualitative research method was adopted as the methodology. Hence, no data was collected and analyzed with statistical tools. The study concluded that harmonization of accounting standards all over the world is very vital and necessary as it helps to reduce or eliminate the differences in financial reporting. We recommended that the IFRS, IAS and other regulatory bodies should be more proactive in the discharge of their duties, as this will check negative manipulation of financial information by preparers for selfish gains. Agbo Innocent Sunny | Emovon Felix Osayabor "Need for Harmonization of International Accounting Standards" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-7 | Issue-3 , June 2023, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com.com/papers/ijtsrd57566.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com.com/management/accounting-and-finance/57566/need-for-harmonization-of-international-accounting-standards/agbo-innocent-sunny