CONSOLIDATION POLICY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE APPROACHES TO THE CONCEPT OF CONTROL

Preparing consolidated financial statements has been a common practice for groups of companies around the world for a relatively long time, going back one century in the USA and tens of years in different European countries.A far-reaching issue regarding consolidation accounting policy is the concept of control, as it holds a crucial role in determining the basis of consolidation and the applicable method of consolidation and subsequently in influencing the content of the group financial statements. We focus in our article on the concept of exclusive control as it is approached by the relevant International, American and European standards, casting light also on possible future developments of this concept. The objective of our study is to acknowledge the differences and similarities between the approaches to the control concept, closing with the presentation of the influences of these approaches on the basis of consolidation.