The perceived need for and impediments to achieving accounting transparency in developing countries: a field investigation on Bangladesh

This paper seeks to draw the current picture of accounting transparency, the obstacles to achieving it, and the way forward for developing countries in general, and Bangladesh in particular. Interviews of preparers, users and standard setters in Bangladesh comprise the main source of data for this study. Twenty-seven initial interviews were conducted followed by twenty follow-up interviews. The paper concludes that while regulation is important in achieving accounting transparency, it is also a function of corporate culture that is unlikely to change overnight. Unless there is increased pressure from the forces on the ground (via shareholder activism or lender pressure) transparency cannot be achieved by regulation alone. There is also a need to tighten the auditing profession and improve regulatory oversight of the SEC. Policy prescriptions put forward in this paper could provide a framework for dealing with similar problems in other developing countries as well.