Elke König full-time member of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)

The Trustees of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) Foundation announced today the appointment of two leading financial executives to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB): Dr. Elke König (Germany) and Darrel Scott (South Africa)

Dr König and Mr Scott will begin their five-year terms as full-time members of the IASB in July and October 2010 respectively.

Dr König has served as a senior financial executive in the insurance industry. From 2002 to 2009 she served as CFO of Hannover Re Group, a leading international reinsurance group. Previously she spent twelve years as a member of the senior management of Munich Re, with specific responsibility for the group’s accounting and controlling activities. She is currently serving in non-executive capacities as chairperson of Hannover Finanz GmbH and as a member of the supervisory board of Deutsche Hypothekenbank Aktiengesellschaft. Dr König has been a member of the CFO Forum of European insurers, where she has been actively engaged in the IASB’s project on insurance contracts.

Mr Scott is CFO of the FirstRand Banking Group, one of the largest financial institutions in South Africa. He has responsibility for both statutory and regulatory financial reporting under the Basel II Accords. He serves on various Governance, Risk, Operation and Strategic Committees of the Group. Mr Scott is also a member of the IASB’s International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC), a position from which he will resign to become an IASB member, and was formerly a member of the IASC Foundation’s Standards Advisory Council (SAC).

About the IFRS Foundation and the IASB

 The IFRS Foundation is an independent, not-for profit private sector organisation working in the public interest. Its principal objectives are:

  • to develop a single set of high quality, understandable, enforceable and globally accepted international financial reporting standards (IFRSs) through its standard-setting body, the IASB;
  • to promote the use and rigorous application of those standards;
  • to take account of the financial reporting needs of emerging economies and small and medium-sized entities (SMEs); and
  • to bring about convergence of national accounting standards and IFRSs to high quality solutions.

The governance and oversight of the activities undertaken by the IFRS Foundation and its standard-setting body rests with its Trustees, who are also responsible for safeguarding the independence of the IASB and ensuring the financing of the organisation. The Trustees are publicly accountable to a Monitoring Board of public authorities.