A clash of philosophies?

The EU has deferred accepting the IASB's new standard on financial instruments (IFRS 9). According an article in the FT (see title link) this is because some EU countries (principally Germany, France and Italy) see a role for financial reporting in maintaining stability of financial systems, whereas the IASB doesn't.

This seems to be a case of the IASB being misled by its own propaganda. Although the constitution of the IASB gives it a role in wider economic matters, it steadfastly refuses to admit that its narrow focus on the presumed interests of capital providers may not provide those benefits.

In a recent lecture at the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Professor Mike Power suggested that, in relation to 'fair value', people could divided into fundamentalists and pragmatists. The fundamentalists couldn't see any alternative to fair value whereas the pragmatists' main interest was in whether accounting standards worked or not. His main point was that because of different philosophical standpoints the two groups of people couldn't understand each other's views.

In particular the 'fundamentalists' (I think he may have included the IASB staffers in this category) can't understand the objections other people have to their standards.