domestic practice, comparative international analyses and accounting discretion mdash;italian savings banks pension cost accounting推荐.pdf

ABACUS, Vol. 39, No. 1, 2003 ABAAbacusABACUSFITALIAN SAVINGS BANKS’ PENSION COST ACCOUNTING© The Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney.0001-307200Original ArticleGraphicraft Limited, Hong Kong391120ebruary 2003 Blackwell Publishing108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main Street, Malden MA 02148, USA. FRANCESCO CAPALBO Domestic Practice, Comparative International Analyses and Accounting Discretion—Italian Savings Banks’ Pension Cost Accounting In countries where the use of financial statements is minimal and relative accounting debate less intense, domestic practices may gain benefit from being consistently applied. Comparison with foreign experience is cru- cial. It leads to questioning of the appropriateness of practices that might otherwise never be discussed, particularly where they are developed in such a way as to favour the stakeholders controlling the accounting process. A salient example evidencing the above claims is to be found in the Italian savings banks (hereafter ‘banks’) accounting for the cost of defined benefits pension plans. The Italian financial system is credit- based. While banks play a predominant role, the financial industry itself enjoys significant autonomy in setting its accounting standards. This is especially so in respect of the accounting for the cost of pensions as sav- ings banks have offered the most significant and almost unique example of employees’ defined benefit pension plans in Italy. The present article compares some aspects of the long debated inter- national