Press Release: Accounting: Commission endorses international standard on accounting for share-based payments (IFRS 2)

The European Commission on 7 February 2005 adopted a Regulation endorsing International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) No. 2 on Share-based Payment. IFRS 2 means companies need to reflect share-based payments, including stock options for staff, more clearly in their accounts. The text was supported almost unanimously by the Member States at the Accounting Regulatory Committee (ARC) on 20 December 2004 and by the European Parliament. This standard belongs to the so-called stable platform of accounting standards which all listed European companies need to use, as they moved to international accounting standards from January 2005.