Main findings of the country case studies on monitoring of compliance and enforcement of corporate reporting requirements

The five countries on which the case studies (published in this volume and in International Accounting and Reporting Issues 2014 Review) have been conducted are among the top 24 countries around the world when ranked in terms of their gross domestic product for 2013: Germany – 4th; United Kingdom – 6th; Canada – 11th; Australia – 12th; and Belgium – 24th. All five countries have at least one regulated stock exchange. They also have at least one professional accountancy organization that is a full member of IFAC. In terms of their legal and regulatory traditions, Australia, Canada (with the exception the province of Quebec) and the United Kingdom fall into the category of common law countries, while the continental European countries – Belgium and Germany – belong to the code-law group of countries. Furthermore, a commonality among Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom is the fact that they are members of the European Union and as such they are required to transpose into national law European Union directives, including in the area of corporate reporting. The case studies of these three countries provide useful illustrations of regional coordination mechanisms with respect to monitoring of compliance and enforcement of corporate reporting requirements.

Related Subject(s): International Trade and Finance