The RBI issued guidelines on compliance with accounting standards by banks. The guidelines envisage doing away with some disclosures in cases where the impact on the accounts is not material, and simplification of disclosures in other cases.“RBI considers that with the issue of the guidelines and adoption of the prescribed procedures, there should normally be no need for any statutory auditor for qualifying balance sheet of the bank being audited for non-compliance with accounting standards. Hence, it is essential that both banks and the statutory central auditors adopt the guidelines and procedures prescribed,” RBI stated in a notification issued to commercial banks.The statutory central auditors report on banks’ non-compliance with some of the accounting standards in their reports attached to the balance sheets and the qualifications could affect the confidence of the users of the financial statements, viz., counter-party banks, host country regulators of foreign branches of Indian banks, national and international rating agencies etc., in the integrity of the published results.
