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Since January 1, 2005 all publicly traded companies within the EU must prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The transition to IFRS brought with it major changes in the accounting for financial instruments through the introduction of the highly controversial accounting standard IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement. This applied in particular to hedge accounting, i.e. the accounting for financial instruments held with the purpose of reducing exposures to various kinds of risks. Prior to the transition to IFRS, hedge accounting was a virtually unregulated area in Sweden. With the introduction of IAS 39, hedge accounting instead became subject to a comprehensive, highly complex and restrictive system of rules.



This thesis is about how Swedish non-financial listed firms have implemented the rules on hedge accounting in IAS 39. The study shows the problems that arose in the firms when implementing the standard and identifies the reasons why some firms eschew hedge accounting for some or all of their hedges. Furthermore, the accounting consequences of different types of hedges are generally considered to have a considerable impact on firms’ hedging activities. A central question in this thesis is therefore also if the introduction of the restrictive rules on hedge accounting in IAS 39 has had an impact on the hedging activities in Swedish non-financial firms, and if so, in what way.