IFRS without an International Financial Reporting Language (IFRL): Evidence of multiculturalism and a lack of global transparency in the EU

Since 2005, all EU listed companies use IFRS. This paper examines 5000 EU companies from 2012 and 2013 and found that only 50% voluntarily file in English, the lingua franca or IFRL. We identified three tiers of transparency (High, Medium, Low) and found that Company Size (Equity, Revenue), Country Location (EU15, Population, GDP Rank), Language (Major Language, Number Speaking Local Language) and Trade (Ease in Doing Business, Trading Across Borders) all influenced filing in English. We also found that companies in low transparency countries (Spain, France, and Poland) had low foreign ownership and were not interested in global visibility.