Counting the cost of pensions across Europe IAS 19: Burden or opportunity?
While accounting standard IAS 19 is being used in a number of countries
across the world, these pages focus on its forthcoming introduction across the
European Union, which is likely to have a significant impact.
IAS 19 is to be introduced across the EU from 2005 and will show increased
pension liabilities for many companies and more volatile pension costs. Liabilities
and the assets backing them will become much more transparent and comparable
across companies and countries, and subject to ever-greater scrutiny by analysts,
credit rating agencies and other observers.
Multinationals will face additional challenges, in obtaining high quality,
consistent valuations worldwide to limited year-end time scales.
Transition rules mean that entities may require their first assessment as early
as the end of 2003, so most companies should be in the process of making this
assessment NOW.
Watson Wyatt have all the skills, tools and experience needed to guide you
through this process and make IAS 19 far more than a compliance requirement,
but a valuable tool in the management of benefit plans.
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