The highly damaging global economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in calls by many in the financial industry, as well as others, to show regulatory and accounting forbearance. A specific suggestion is to do away with International Financial Reporting Standard 9 (IFRS 9), postpone it or apply it with a light touch. All three of these proposals must be rejected.

IFRS 9 was developed in response to a key lesson learned from the global financial crisis – that bank accounts recognised