The latest plans to change international lease
accounting standards could be taking a worrying “direction”,
Leaseurope has warned.
The representative body for Europe’s leasing
industry said that proposals of the International Accounting
Standards Board (IASB) might heavily impact the cost and
availability of finance for Europe’s small businesses.
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Mark Venus, chairman of Leaseurope’s
accounting committee, said: “European businesses will have to cope
with what is turning out to be an extremely complicated approach to
lease accounting.”
The changes proposed by the IASB will impact
on lessees’ financial statements and remove any distinction between
operating and finance leases. The IASB has recently announced it
will also consider accounting from the perspective of lessors.
Venus said: “If the lessor accounting
proposals have the effect of limiting the availability of leasing
as Leaseurope expects they may, smaller firms in particular could
have a much harder time financing their investments.”
Leaseurope’s director general Tanguy van de
Werve added that policy makers and business representatives need to
be “fully aware of the implications of the proposals and must make
their views heard”.
“The European business community is still
struggling with a difficult economic environment and limited
availability of funds. It cannot afford to miss out on a chance to
shape these proposals”, he said.
Antonio Fabrizio
