Question 2 - 1,500 words

The Senior Partner of the firm you work for has appointed you to a new role. It is now your responsibility to review upcoming accounting standards and provide a report to the partners on the proposed standard and the opinions of other industry players on the changes.

Firstly, you are required to find a current exposure draft or proposal for a new accounting standard (no older than 1 year) which has been opened for public comments. (These can be found on the websites of most standard-setting organisations, such as the IASB, AASB and FASB. Hint: These websites can be quite difficult to navigate, so as a first step try typing "IASB exposure draft and comment letters" / "FASB exposure draft and comment letters" into Google or other search engine of your choice). Read a sample of the comments from a range of respondents. Select four respondents, ideally from different types of organisations for example, from accounting bodies, industry, companies or corporate bodies. If you are having a problem finding suitable comments letters then contact your subject coordinator.

In your own words, supporting your evaluation with appropriate citations, appropriately referenced in APA 6 style, you are required to include the following information in the report.

• An outline of the major issues covered in the exposure draft (what is the exposure draft introducing or changing?).
• An outline of the views presented in the comments letters which highlights the areas of agreement and disagreement with the exposure draft.
• An assessment (with relevant examples) as to whether the comments letters utilise any of the arguments 'for' or 'against' regulation.
• An interpretation of the actions of the authors of the comments letters based on each of the theories of regulation (public interest, private interest and capture) including an explanation of which theory(ies) you think best explains the comments.