The Accounting Standards Board in UK has delayed the implementation of FRS 17 until January 2005.
FRS 17, which values final salary schemes to show whether they are liability on the balance sheet, was supposed to be adopted next year.
But the ASB said its decision – aimed at allowing a more “orderly” transition to the new standard – does not mean a weakening of its view that the UK standard is the “best approach” to pension accounting.
“The Board continues to encourage early adoption of all the requirements of FRS 17 on a voluntary basis,” it said.
FRS 17 means firms have to assess pension assets at market value and to take a pessimistic view of their liabilities instead of allowing them to make assumptions about future market performance as they do now.
