not exist in practice. Banks are also subject to monthly financial reporting, including
statement of assets and liabilities, detailed information on loans and deposits, and various
financial ratios. The Bank of Lao PDR PDR prescribes the chart of accounts and formats
for banks in order to prepare their financial statements. This chart of accounts was
introduced in 1997. There is no statutory requirement for banks to use IFRS. The Chart of
Accounts for Banks is being revised at the present time in line with a recent version of
the IFRS. However, there is no mechanism in place for updating the Bank Chart of
Accounts to reflect up-to-date changes in the IFRS. The IFRS include standards that
have been developed to help banks prepare financial statements showing a true and fair
representation of income and expenditure and assets and liabilities. For example, IAS 32,
Financial Instruments: Disclosure and Presentation, and IAS 39, Financial Instruments:
Recognition and Measurement, were set to enable banks to account for financial
instruments. However, the 1997 Lao Accounting System for Banks does not enable banks
to properly account for such complex activity. Also, the current Lao Accounting System
is not comprehensive enough to handle all types of accounting issues encountered in bank
financial reporting.