Accounting for financial instruments is currently one of the hottest topics in the corporate world, courtesy of the credit crunch. But for those that have made the switch to IFRS, the complexities and issues thrown up recently were hardly a surprise.

For Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Australia’s largest bank and the first of its four major banks to publicly report under International Financial Reporting Standards, educating the market on the topic and explaining why the accounting causes volatility in the income statement is still a priority – three years later.