I make no secret of my total disdain for virtually all financial journalists. So many of them write sloppy, badly-researched stories about financial issues that scream to the world their total lack of understanding of accounting.

But this snippet really is the lowest of the low, in an article on HSBC's third quarter results:

The “reported” profit before tax figure, which gives a less accurate sense of how the business is performing was actually up $3.6bn on the equivalent period of 2010, at $7.2bn, including a $4.1 favourable move in the value of the bank’s own debt. This will not be the figure investors will be looking at, however.

While I can see what they're trying to get at, it's extremely irresponsible to talk of a listed company's GAAP results as "less accurate". It's this sort of nonsense that fuels the idea that IFRS is just a game that companies play, with the full complicity of their auditors, to produce financial numbers that have no direct relevance for investors. IFRS are designed for investors, so if they don't like IFRS numbers, they need to get on the IASB's case to get them changed. But journalists must also do their part to support trust and confidence in reported information. 

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Filed under: Accounting with tags banks, hsbc, iasb, idiots, ifrs, sharecast