The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday it would press ahead with a plan to ask Taiwanese businesses to use new bookkeeping rules from the first quarter of next year so that all public companies can issue financial reports based on the new standards in 2013.
Local companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange or GRETAI Securities Market, as well as financial institutions that are under the commission’s supervision, are required to adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) under the commission’s plan.
Commission Chairman Chen Yuh-chang (陳裕璋) yesterday reiterated the stance and agenda when inaugurating a service center for the new accounting rules at the commission’s Securities and Futures Bureau in Taipei.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The IFRS Service Center is intended to help companies better understand and employ the new standards, which Chen described as a neutral mechanism that won’t harm corporate finances.
The commission is gathering views from different sectors and experts before drawing up related guidelines by the end of this month, Chen said, as some remain divided on how to measure real-estate assets under the new rules.
While the introduction of IFRS is expected to bring a balance between risk and capital for life insurance companies, they will be required to conduct stricter liability adequacy testing and disclose more financial details. As a result, insurers have pressed for recognition of market value in valuing their assets, while the commission considers it better to use acquisition costs to determine the value of assets.
Even so, Chen said four companies — chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), state-run Mega Financial Holdings Co (兆豐金控), chemicals maker Swancor Industrial Co (上緯企業) and diffuser plate maker Entire Technology Co (穎台科技) — will next month unveil their IFRS-based financial results for last year to set an example for other listed firms.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
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