Konsekvenser av principbaserade regelverk: En studie av säkringsredovisning på en svensk storbank

Sammanfattning: IASB is currently working with the replacement of IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement. The new standard IFRS 9 Financial Instruments is said to be based on principles as opposed to the more rules-based IAS 39. This thesis examines the third phase of the project regarding micro hedge accounting. The expressed goal from IASB is to provide more useful hedge accounting information by reducing complexity of the standard. To examine the potential effects of the transition from the rules based IAS 39 to the more principles based IFRS 9, we have performed a case study on a major Swedish bank. The empirical material has been collected through interviews with selected bank employees and studies of internal documents. When applying the chosen theories discussing rules based- versus principles based standards, we have found that despite the fact that IFRS 9 still contains some restrictive rules it is a distinct move towards a more principles based framework. However, by stating that the basis for hedge accounting should be a firm's internal risk management IASB does not define a clear underlying principle. Instead a vast responsibility for the accounting information is left to companies applying hedge accounting. The study shows that IFRS 9 probably will not force the Bank to any major changes in their current hedge accounting activities. Though, it provides them with increased possibilities when developing their internal hedging and hedge accounting strategies since it allows more professional judgment by managers. To what extent the Bank will be successful in developing the hedge accounting policy can depend on how effective it is in capitalizing the accumulated knowledge at different levels of the organization.