Editorial

Peter Walton

There is a point in the history of standard-setting, generally thought to be in the 1970s, when people stopped thinking of standard-setting as a purely technical process and started to realise it had economic and social consequences – in other words to realise that standard-setting is not only a technical process but also a political one. The question of the relationship between IFRS 9 and insurance company accounting is a good illustration, and it seems that the IASB has collectively acknowledged the political argument at last, even if some members were reluctant to leave the technical high ground.