In recent years, there has been a growing tendency to establish closer ties among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates) in economies and financial institutions. As a result, there is an increasing need for the harmonization of accounting regulations in order to improve cooperation and enhance the efficiency of the financial institutions among GCC countries. This study is an investigation of the accounting standards followed by the financial institutions in five GCC countries with some policy prescriptions for harmonization of the accounting regulations in GCC countries. This paper deals with accounting policies and practices, including loans and provisions, assets, investments, taxation, liabilities, foreign exchange, revenue recognization, and consolidation of GCC countries’ banking and other financial institutions.

The inadequacies of traditional management accounting (MA) information indicate a need for management to find proper measuring tools for emerging non‐financial performance (NFP) in the highly competitive financial services, as well as in the manufacturing industry. Thus, the role of MA in measuring the performances of emerging NFP has been receiving increased emphasis in the increasingly important service industries. Considering the shortcomings of the traditional MA information system, particularly the measurement of new emerging NFPs, this empirical research is an attempt to investigate the role of MA in non‐financial as well as financial performance measurement (PM) in selected banks and financial institutions (BFIs) in Finland. The study demonstrates that the role of MA in non‐financial PM is insignificant. However, management is paying more attention to its measurement. This study identifies three different aspects of NFP: profit‐driven NFP; NFP for long‐term competitive advantage; and independent NFP (those not linked with the profitability of an organisation).

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Traditional management accounting (MA) has certain limitations, and this highlights the need to examine the nature of cost‐management practices. The implications of non‐financial success factors are emerging in highly competitive financial industries. These receive more emphasis in service organisations that achieve the benefits of performance measurement. Although much is written on the need for accurate performance measures, comparatively little is known about the role of MA in measuring non‐financial performance (NFP). With a view to the implications of MA systems and the measurement of the performance of critical success factors in financial industries, this paper studies the role of MA in NFP in Japanese financial institutions.

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