The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has initiated talks with accounting standards regulator Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to advance the mandatory implementation of accounting standards for derivatives transactions by Indian banks and companies from its present 2011 deadline.
At the moment, for banks and companies, the new accounting standard AS-30 is optional till March 31, 2011. The RBI wants banks to adopt AS 30 and AS 31 from 2009-10, fearing that derivative deals could affect banks and their profitability.
Besides, sources in the know of things said that Basel norms take care of most disclosure procedures and the new accounting standard will only be a refinement. Even sections within ICAI support the move and have initiated steps for an early implementation, sources said.
In March, ICAI had reiterated that companies could adopt AS 30 to disclose mark-to-market position on account of derivatives from 2007-08.
According to the ICAI guidelines, any accounting standard becomes mandatory as soon as it is issued. In the absence of norms, derivative transactions are usually camouflaged under heads like loan exposures and contingent liabilities.
While RBI can introduce specific accounting for banks, the purpose of disclosure gets defeated if bank are unable to get a complete picture of a company's total investment, its loan portfolio, the hedges it has taken for both its loans and derivatives deals.
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