Fair Value: Actuarial Accounting for the Markets... Or for the Accountants?

Abstract

Fair value accounting under IAS-IFRSs is often presented as market accounting that results from expression of the financial requirements of business management and accounting practice. By showing that fair value has the features of actuarial accounting, and is the product of a conceptual shift made necessary by the contemporary context and thus in dissonance with certain aspects of current accounting practice, this article demonstrates that fair value accounting in fact represents an opportunity for the international accounting standard-setter, seen as a legitimate body for European standardisation, and for financial statement preparers as regards financial statement users, by creating new margins of discretion for them. To support this argument, the article particularly emphasises that fair value, because it corresponds to actuarial accounting, brings about a surplus of information for investors without actually raising the transparency of financial reporting.