Formal defi nitions

‘The objective of general purpose fi nancial reporting is to provide fi nancial information about the reporting entity that is useful to existing and potential investors, lenders and other creditors in making decisions about providing resources to the entity. Those decisions involve buying, selling or holding equity and debt instruments, and providing or settling loans and other forms of credit.’

International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) (2010), The Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting Discuss the key aspects highlighted in bold of this formal definition of the objective of general purpose financial reporting as formulated by the IASB in its conceptual framework.