IAS39 and measurement quality: bankers’ perceptions

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to make an empirical contribution by investigating the boundaries between external financial reporting and decision making through assessing the degree of differences among practitioners’ perspectives of financial reporting measurement attributes across two countries, and the impact of the “domestic” practice through cultural factors on the implementation of financial accounting and regulation. Design/methodology/approach - The authors employ the method of triangulation by employing two research instruments, namely interviews and a questionnaire. Triangulation cuts across and within research strategies, as one of its features as a processual technique is to cross‐check results deriving from both quantitative and qualitative research. Cross‐national studies is a very useful tool that can provide a basis for competing explanations, identifying the importance of regional factors across a universally‐changing environment or discriminating between explanations that are country‐specific and those that are universally applicable. Findings - This study provides evidence for a diverging perceived effectiveness and acceptance of IAS39 in two different banking markets (Greece and the UK), suggesting that culture and domestic configurations play an important part in shaping management perceptions and that given these differences, the choice of a measurement system can potentially also affect the (re)liability of managers that sign a firm's financial reports. Practical implications - Topical settings can potentially influence the preferences and perceptions of managers with regards to particular measurement bases as part of the wider accounting framework instituted by international authorities, as well as raise significant barriers to harmonisation efforts. Originality/value - This paper seeks to examine the chasm between regulation and accounting through the lens of topical/domestic configurations of accounting practice and its application. The reason for doing so is also because of the recent structural developments in the international finance arena, namely signs of creation of markets for impaired assets.