Int. J. Economics and Accounting, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2015 1 Copyright © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Credit rating agencies analysing IFRS data: a sample of rated companies and their reported information Jean-Guy Degos IRGO Research Centre, University of Bordeaux, 35, avenue Abadie, 33072 Bordeaux, France Email: jgdegos@wanadoo.fr Oussama Ben Hmiden* ESSCA School of Management, 1, rue Lakanal, P.O. Box 40348, 49003 Angers, France Email: oussama.benhmiden@essca.fr *Corresponding author Jérémie Aboiron Aboiron & Associates, 37, rue des Mathurins, 75008 Paris, France Email: jeremie@aboiron.com Abstract: This paper explores the size of the differences between reported amounts in accordance with international financial reporting standards (IFRS) and standard accounting adjustments made by the credit rating agencies. From an analysis of French rated companies, we make a comparison between the values obtained through credit rating agencies adjustments and those reported before and after the implementation of IFRS. Our comparability index revealed that credit rating agencies make significant adjustments to reported information. Indeed, considerable differences can be found between the information reported according to IFRS and that adjusted for the main criteria used by the rating agencies, i.e., debt, liquidity and profitability. Keywords: credit rating agencies; CRA; adjustments; international financial reporting standards; IFRS; comparability index. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Degos, J-G., Ben Hmiden, O. and Aboiron, H. (2015) ‘Credit rating agencies analysing IFRS data: a sample of rated companies and their reported information’, Int. J. Economics and Accounting, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp.1–14.