SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt in October 1999:
"Financial reporting is a language, just like German or English. It is the language that companies use to talk to investors. It is the language that investors use to ascertain value. It is what people use everyday to decide where to invest their hard earned dollars for financial security and future opportunity. These decisions can be hard enough. But try it in a language you don't understand, and it becomes all but impossible. Even worse, misleading."

Where we as translators are concerned, this situation is further compounded by the fact that (for Germany at least) three quite different sets of accounting standards are involved: HGB/GoB, IASs (International Accounting Standard) and US GAAP (United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).

Robin Bonthrone

http://www.accurapid.com/journal/13finan.htm