Due to the bankruptcies at the Signa Group, the annual accounts of companies that were submitted too late have attracted more attention. A current analysis by the Credit Protection Association from 1870 clearly shows that the Benko empire is by no means an isolated case.
Of the companies that would be obliged to do so, 12.2 percent have not yet presented a balance sheet for the 2022 financial year. Another 3.8 percent submitted them too late. The majority of them, 3.4 percent, met their obligation within three months of the deadline, according to a press release from KSV1870.
Credit protectors: “Irresponsible to creditors”
“There is an acute need to catch up,” says Ricardo-José Vybiral, CEO of KSV1870 Holding GmbH. “This is not only illegal, but also irresponsible in terms of professional risk management and creditor protection,” the director continued.
Finally, the balance sheet must be submitted within nine months of the balance sheet date. But according to the credit protectors, improvement is also needed at other companies: it is mainly business errors that have crept into the annual accounts.
“Unfortunately, failure to meet minimum standards and failure to perform quality control before submission is more common than you might think,” explains Günther Fasching, authorized representative of KSV1870 Information GmbH. This is a result of the fact that the requirements have been gradually reduced in recent years. “As KSV1870, we view this development critically and advocate a return to previous publication rules,” Fasching adds.
The Minister of Justice plans heavier sentences
Minister of Justice Alma Zadic recently presented an action plan with stricter penalties for accounting defaults. According to their idea, a fine of up to five percent of global annual turnover should be imposed. “The wave of bankruptcies at Signa has shown that the current fines are not sufficient. “Large companies would rather pay fines than provide open and honest information about their economic situation,” says a ministry newspaper. “It will therefore be necessary to increase the penalties so that even large companies can no longer ignore them,” Zadic stressed.
Zadic also wants to introduce new transparency rules for companies. The aggregation obligation should be expanded so that a parent company can no longer claim to be small and therefore only publish certain data. So far, the parent company has only to calculate its thresholds on a consolidated basis for stock companies; this rule will be extended to (holding) GmbHs.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
