IFRS going-concern muteness in Nigerian banking debacle

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the going concern reporting muteness in Pseudo Bank ABC prior to the 2009 intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). As a hallmark of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS), the going concern assumption required in IAS 1 that bank financial statements reported the going concern status assumed in its preparation. An examination of the 2008 financial statements of Bank ABC, one of the five banks that came under the axe of CBN in 2009 for the immediate period before distress, suggests accounting policies that appeared to reflect the letters of IAS. Nonetheless, the spirit of IAS did not seem to show, given the silence of the annual report on the grave financial situation of the bank alleged by the CBN in justification for their rescue intervention. It suggests undefaced going concern uncertainty, contrary to the spirit of IFRS and underscores the going concern secrecy that has bedevilled banking in Nigeria over the years.