The vision for the REPARIS IFRS for Regulators Seminar Series is that financial regulators will promote and monitor a single set of high-quality international accounting standards.
These standards will support the efficient operation of markets by ensuring that investors, creditors and other stakeholders have access to timely, reliable and relevant information about the financial position and results of the operations of a company for a given period. Regulators are one of the primary user groups of financial reporting and they require excellent skills in analyzing annual reports and supporting disclosure materials in order to carry out their supervisory activities.
The objectives of the Seminar Series are to raise awareness and to enhance the skills of financial regulators in using IFRS, so that they can promote and monitor effectively the use of IFRS, especially within the bank and insurance sectors. In addition, in order to use financial statements prepared under IFRS for prudential and regulatory purposes, a range of adjustments ("prudential filters") are recommended by prudential standard setters such as the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS, which will become the new European Banking Authority - EBA), and the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions (CEIOPS, which will become the new European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority - EIOPA).
Both the analysis of financial statements and the proper use of prudential filters require a thorough understanding of current IFRS and their prudential implications. Further, at a time of major changes in the accounting and prudential environment, regulators of each country participating in the REPARIS program should gain and share thorough analyses of expected changes in accounting standards and prudential rules.