ABSTRACT
It was a question of time that expanding capital markets and increasing economic internationalization pushed the quest for internationally accepted accounting rules for companies to the top of the agenda of economic and political actors. For capital market-oriented companies, the existence of globally accepted accounting rules would be an opportunity to offer listings at different foreign stock exchanges with the same set of financial statements. International standards would further facilitate the accounting in international groups and, ideally, for international investors, uniform accounting rules would provide worldwide comparable financial information allowing for an efficient choice between investments (van Helleman and Slomp 2002).1
