Finance minister Wouter Bos backs changing international financial reporting rules to lessen the effect of equity market valuations on corporate results, the Financieele Dagblad says on Wednesday.

International accounting guidelines, known as the IFRS rules, state that companies must include the market value of equities on their balance sheets.
For example, ING would have had to include its American mortgage portfolio – which has a very low value – on its books if the Dutch government had not agreed to shoulder the risk, says the Financieele Dagblad.
Both the government and ING think the actual value of the mortgages is much higher than the market value, the paper says.
In his weekly interview with tv station RTLZ, Bos said he hopes other countries will realise how sensitive companies are to stock market prices and also support change.