Brussels, 08/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - The declaration of the European Finance Ministers on the international financial reporting standards (IFRS), made in early April in Prague at the informal meeting of the Ecofin Council (see EUROPE 9877), has not had the hoped-for effects. They have therefore invited two officials from the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), the international private body tasked with writing the IFRS, to attend a meeting this Tuesday. They will urge them to make changes to the standard IAS 39, in such a way as to put the European financial institutions on an equal footing with their US counterparts. Since the second quarter of 2009, the American financial institutions have enjoyed new rules allowing them to balance any losses from depreciating assets by no longer having to apply the "fair value" principle to them. This has allowed their profits to grow by "between 7% and 10%", explained a European source, describing this as "a real problem of competition between the American and European banks in presenting their accounts". The IASB officials are expected to agree to change the standard by the end of the year, but a number of delegations (Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands) are calling for the revision to be made more quickly, whilst the United Kingdom is happy for the rules to be changed at the end of 2009. (M.B./trans.fl)