The Hong Kong Society of Accountants (HKSA) will allow firms more time to make responses to a controversial draft accounting standard that would dramatically escalate the degree of disclosure of related party transactions.
Authorities had won widespread support for the broad principle of increased related party disclosures, but encountered significant opposition to individual provisions of the draft standard.
In particular, corporate respondents expressed strong opposition to a rule that, if implemented, would force companies to disclose the individual names of related parties with which they dealt.
James Fawls, director of professional standards at the society, said companies would be allowed a month to make submissions on the standard.
The extension had been made because of the interest level in the draft standard.
The society had received a larger than normal number of submissions on the draft standard by the time of the original deadline last month, largely complaining about the proposed disclosure of the names of related parties.