Subject of the lecture are the basics of accounting for banks both by the German commercial law as well as by the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The first unit deals with an introduction to the bank-specific and regulatory notions and a representation from the perspective of accounting of the institutions which are relevant for the banking industry. 

The second unit is dedicated to the basics of bank-specific accounting according to HGB (§§ 340-340o HGB). It’s about the topics of securities and measurement, trading portfolio and valuation units, lending business and loan loss provisions, disclosed and hidden reserves, cross compensation and debt and equity.

The third unit deals with the IFRS regulations. The focus is on the International Accounting Standard IAS 39 and its rules on financial instruments with regard to recognition and disposal, classification and measurement, embedded derivatives, loan loss provisions (impairment) and hedge accounting.

The lecture concludes with a unit concerning the IAS 39 Replacement Project and the new regulations of IFRS 9 which are under development. This unit is particularly about to familiarize students with the guided theoretical and practical discussion on the new regulations for financial instruments and to present you the challenges for preparers and readers of the balance sheet.