Over the years, many Asian countries have reformed their national
accounting standards by adopting IFRS/IAS issued by International
Accounting Standard Board (IASB). The convergence of IFRS/IAS emerged
substantially after the Asia financial crisis in 1997. Although it has been
difficult to determine the cause of the crisis, the issue of transparency of
financial reporting was identified as a factor that stimulated the collapse.
Subsequent the crisis, the region gained much attention from international
organizations, especially International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, all
of which later became a key influencer to accounting and auditing reform in
many countries. In addition, the countries themselves expressed its strong
intention to restore their economies. These forces have brought them to the
improvement in the business infrastructures, financial reporting standards,
auditing standards and regulations to create the transparency and have a better
monitoring mechanism at the end.