IFRS Explained: The Complete Guide for Finance Professionals in APAC

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) help organisations achieve financial transparency when working across countries. This guide explains the basics of IFRS, its global adoption, recent updates, regional differences, and how new technology is changing IFRS compliance for APAC businesses.

What is IFRS?

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are a set of accounting standards developed by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), an independent, private-sector body based in London. IFRS provides a common global language for international businesses, enabling company accounts to be understandable and comparable across international boundaries (1).

The IASB was established in 2001 as part of the IFRS Foundation, replacing the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC). Standards issued under the previous body are still in force and are known as International Accounting Standards (IAS), while newer releases carry the IFRS label.

According to the IFRS Foundation, IFRS Standards are required or permitted in 169 jurisdictions, including all G20 economies, where they have been adopted for domestic public companies.

In practice, IFRS governs how transactions and other events are recognised, measured, presented, and disclosed in financial statements, thereby providing investors, regulators, and creditors with a reliable, consistent basis for decision-making.

Goals, benefits, and importance

Why IFRS matters?

The IFRS Foundation states that its mission is to develop standards that bring transparency, accountability and efficiency to financial markets around the world (1).

By providing a single set of high-quality, globally accepted standards, IFRS reduces misinformation between companies and their investors.

What are the benefits of IFRS?

Which countries have adopted IFRS?

As of now, IFRS Accounting Standards are required for the financial statements of all or most publicly accountable entities in 169 jurisdictions (2). These include all 27 member states of the European Union, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, South Korea, and many others.

Countries adopt IFRS primarily to attract foreign direct investment, facilitate cross-border participation in capital markets, and reduce the cost of financial reporting for multinational entities operating within their borders.

IFRS adoption status by region

• European Union: Mandatory for listed companies since 2005.

• Australia: Adopted Australian equivalents of IFRS (AIFRS) since 2005.

• Singapore: Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (International), or SFRS(I), substantially converged with IFRS from 2018.

• Hong Kong SAR: Hong Kong Financial Reporting Standards (HKFRS) are essentially identical to IFRS.

• Japan: Permits voluntary IFRS adoption; as of 2024, over 270 listed companies use IFRS.

• China: Chinese Accounting Standards (CAS) are substantially converged with IFRS but are not identical to IFRS.

• India: Ind AS (Indian Accounting Standards) are substantially IFRS-converged.

• United States: The US SEC does not require IFRS for domestic filers; US GAAP remains the standard.

How many IFRS Accounting Standards are there?

As of 2025, there are 17 active IFRS Standards (IFRS 1–17) and 29 active IAS Standards (IAS 1–41, with gaps where standards have been withdrawn or superseded), plus numerous interpretations and mandatory guidance issued by the IFRS Interpretations Committee (IFRIC) and its predecessor, the Standing Interpretations Committee (SIC).

An overview of IFRS / IAS Standards by industry

Spotlight: IFRS 17 Fact Sheet — The Most Significant Change in Insurance Accounting

Download your free guide today →

Are IFRS and GAAP the same?

The simple and short answer is no. IFRS and US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) are two distinct frameworks with the following key differences.

While both frameworks aim at transparency of financial performance, the choice of framework can materially affect reported earnings, balance sheet values, and key financial ratios.

Are IFRS and ACCA the same?

Also no. IFRS is a set of accounting standards, complete with rules and guidelines governing how financial information is reported.

ACCA is a professional accounting qualification and membership body headquartered in London, with over 257,900 members and 530,100 future members in 180 countries (3).

The link between these two bodies is that ACCA’s examinations include comprehensive coverage of IFRS, meaning ACCA-qualified professionals are well-versed in applying these standards.

Are there any localised versions of IFRS?

Yes. While the IFRS Foundation promotes a single global set of standards, many jurisdictions have adopted local variants that are substantially converged with, but not identical to, full IFRS. These are sometimes called ‘IFRS-equivalent’ or ‘IFRS-aligned’ standards.

Below is a shortlist of these local and regional IFRS-equivalent:

• Thailand’s Financial Reporting Standards (TFRS): Maintained by the Federation of Accounting Professions (FAP). Most TFRS closely mirror IFRS, but there may be some timing delays and specific modifications to accommodate local legal requirements (4).

• Singapore Financial Reporting Standards International (SFRS(I)): Aligned with IFRS with minor modifications. Since 2018, Singapore-incorporated companies listed on the Singapore Exchange may use SFRS(I) or full IFRS (5).

• Australian Accounting Standards (AASB Standards): Designed to be identical to IFRS for for-profit entities but include additional, non-IFRS compliant requirements for not-for-profit and public-sector entities (6).

• Japan’s Modified International Standards (JMIS): Japan offers a voluntary accounting standard that combines IFRSs with modifications from the Accounting Standards Board of Japan, allowing some IFRS deviations for goodwill accounting (7).

• Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS): India’s standards closely follow IFRS with several exceptions for localisations. For example, Ind AS omits IAS 26’s Accounting and Reporting by Retirement Benefit Plans as it is not relevant (8).

• Chinese Accounting Standards (CAS): Substantially converged with IFRS to reflect the country’s presence in the international markets, but differences remain. For instance, CAS requires specific financial statement templates compliant with local regulations, whereas IFRS aims to provide meaningful information and is thus more flexible (9).

For APAC finance professionals, understanding whether their entity is required to apply full IFRS, a local variant, or has a choice between the two is a critical first step toward compliance.

Challenges for APAC businesses in adopting IFRS

While the benefits of IFRS adoption are well documented, businesses across the APAC region face distinct challenges rooted in regulatory diversity, resource constraints, and rapidly evolving standards.

1. Regulatory and legal complexity

Each jurisdiction in the APAC region, from Japan and South Korea to Vietnam, Indonesia, and Myanmar, has its own adoption timeline, local uniqueness, and statutory reporting requirements. A regional entity may need to simultaneously manage full IFRS for group consolidation and local accounting books for tax and statutory purposes.

2. Talent and skills gaps

A shortage of IFRS-trained professionals, particularly in emerging markets such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines, means companies struggle to allocate sufficient resources to first-time adoption projects or to keep pace with frequent standard updates.

3. Complexity of key standards

Several standards, such as IFRS 9 (impairment models requiring Expected Credit Loss calculations), IFRS 16 (all operating leases now on-balance-sheet), and IFRS 17 (insurance contract measurement), demand significant data, modelling, and system capabilities that many mid-market businesses lack.

4. Data availability and quality

IFRS requires granular, forward-looking data (e.g., cash flow projections for IFRS 16 lease liability calculations). Many APAC businesses lack the data infrastructure to produce this reliably.

5. Cost of first-time adoption

First-time adopters must restate comparative periods, choose optional exemptions, and potentially re-engineer entire chart-of-accounts structures. This, in a nutshell, is a significant investment for businesses without dedicated IFRS teams.

6. Rapidly evolving standards

The IASB continues to issue amendments and new standards, such as IFRS 18, IFRS 19, and IFRS S1/S2, for the disclosure of sustainability metrics. The constant releases add another layer of complexity and compliance burden for organisations still embedding earlier standards.

Spotlight: Vietnam’s IFRS Journey

Vietnam offers a compelling case of how an emerging APAC economy can pursue IFRS adoption in a structured, phased manner. As the country deepens its integration into global trade and capital markets, the limitations of its longstanding Vietnamese Accounting Standards (VAS) have become increasingly apparent.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) has recently launched Circular 99, the latest VAS update, to close the gaps and bring the country’s current accounting standards closer to IFRS. MoF also implements a three-pronged approach in parallel to ease adoption and prepare businesses for it.

The challenges Vietnam faces are emblematic of those confronting many APAC economies at a similar stage of development. A shortage of IFRS-qualified professionals, compounded by limited IFRS coverage in university curricula, creates a talent bottleneck that affects both preparers and auditors of financial statements.

Read more:Vietnam’s Journey to IFRS: What Financial Leaders Need to Know

The country’s regulatory architecture adds further complexity: unlike most jurisdictions where financial reporting standards interact with tax policy alone, Vietnamese entities must navigate a three-layer framework of financial reporting standards, tax policies, and financial mechanisms that are not always consistently aligned.

For finance leaders across APAC, Vietnam’s experience emphasises that successful IFRS adoption is as much an organisational change as a technical accounting transformation.

To learn more about Circular 99 of Vietnamese Accounting Standards, check out our on-demand webinar here!

How technology can help ease IFRS adoption

Advanced technology is increasingly central to how finance teams, both first-timers and seasoned professionals, manage IFRS compliance.

Technology does not replace the need for skilled IFRS professionals; rather, it empowers them to move away from a once-manual, error-prone process toward a more scalable workflow. For APAC businesses navigating multi-jurisdiction compliance, the right technology platform is certainly a competitive necessity.

Cloud-based ERP and Financial Management Systems

Modern cloud platforms include built-in IFRS compliance modules to automate various key calculation processes, reducing the risk of manual error and freeing finance teams to focus on analysis rather than data entry.

Robust solutions like Infor SunSystems provide unified ledgers, real-time consolidation, dedicated modules to automate currency exchange revaluations, and more. The goal of these platforms is to enable finance teams to eliminate spreadsheets and tedious, mundane tasks.

Consolidation and Close Management

Multi-entity, multi-currency group consolidation is dramatically simplified by modern consolidation tools that apply consistent IFRS policies across entities, automate intercompany eliminations, and produce IFRS-compliant financial statements with full audit trails.

AI and Automation

Artificial intelligence is now being deployed to assist with contract review (automatically identifying lease indicators within legal documents), anomaly detection in financial data, and even drafting disclosure notes. Robotic process automation (RPA) reduces manual journal posting and reconciliation workloads, improving accuracy and speed of close.

Sustainability Reporting Technology

With the IFRS S1 and S2 introducing rigorous sustainability and climate-related disclosure requirements, businesses are turning to ESG data management platforms to collect, validate, and report non-financial data at the same standard of rigour as financial data.

Building IFRS confidence in APAC

IFRS is the global standard for financial reporting, and its role in APAC is growing as markets expand and cross-border investment increases. Knowing the standards, how they apply, local differences, and the challenge of adoption is the first step. Combining this knowledge with the right technology and skilled people can turn compliance into a real advantage.

Whether your organisation is adopting IFRS for the first time or moving to IFRS 17, hopefully this guide has given you the essential info you need.

If you are searching for a reliable technology provider, TRG is ready to assist you on your journey to gain financial confidence, control, and compliance with our robust cloud solution suite. Our team of experts is just one quick call away!

References

1. https://www.ifrs.org/about-us/who-we-are/
2. https://www.ifrs.org/use-around-the-world/use-of-ifrs-standards-by-jurisdiction/
3. https://www.accaglobal.com/uk/en/about-us.html
4. https://www.fap.or.th
5. https://www.ifrs.org/use-around-the-world/use-of-ifrs-standards-by-jurisdiction/view-jurisdiction/singapore/
6. https://www.iasplus.com/en/jurisdictions/oceania/australia
7. https://www.asb-j.jp/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/20180411_04_e.pdf
8. https://iasplus.com/content/c3d32699-5df7-4380-b817-db1e367ddcbf#:~:text=List%20of%20IFRS%20standards%20for,Ind%20AS%20has%20been%20issued.
9. https://fdichina.com/blog/china-accounting-standards-vs-ifrs/