Union Bank has put in place a strategic plan that would enable it key into the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) ahead of the 2012 deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The bank organised a one week workshop on the basics of the global financial reporting format, facilitated by reputable international experts. All cadres of staff, participated in the workshop.
Speaking at the workshop, the executive director, Commercial Banking, South, Mr. Adekunle Adeosun, said the workshop was aimed at getting the bank ready for the IFRS, stressing that the participants were drawn not only from finance and planning/strategy but from different relevant disciplines to enable them understood, appreciate and cross-fertilise ideas on issues governing international financial reporting standards.
The facilitators stated that the idea behind IFRS was to develop in the public interest, a single set of high quality, understandable and enforceable global accounting standards that would require high quality, transparent and comparable information and financial statements to help participants in various capital markets of the world and other users of information to make economic decisions.
They averred that the IFRS board was determined to promote the use and rigorous application of the standards, work actively with national standard setters to bring about convergence of national accounting standard, adding that once any nation keyed into the standards, it would be easier for investors from any part of the world to invest in that country.
It is significant to note that Union Bank is getting ready to adopt the IFRS in line with the apex bank’s directive in 2009, when it issued a format aimed at enhancing transparency and ensure standardisation in financial reporting standards by banks and discount houses.