Are IFRS Really Global Standards of Financial Reporting? Analysis of Worldwide Jurisdiction Profiles

International Financial Reporting Standards were established as International Accounting Standards in 1973 to be generally worldwide accepted language for financial reporting. Nowadays it is more than 40 years since the beginning of the international accounting standards and there is no doubt that IFRS become the lingua franca for financial reporting of companies whose securities are traded on public markets. IFRS is very close to accounting profession and has been included in accounting education of University programs and various charted accountants programs. IFRS has become an ordinary part of our professional life. Despite all these facts the goal of the paper is to provide an analysis of three aspects such as number of countries have already adopted IFRS, number of companies presenting figures based on IFRS and market capitalization of those companies and to express opinion whether IFRS can be really designated as global standards for financial reporting that is presented in lots of papers. The analysis is based on findings resulting from the IASB‘s survey which was finished by 138 countries till November 2014.