Ten leading members of the UK buyside community, who collectively represent almost £300bn-worth of assets, have put their names to a position paper that has warned that international accounting standards risk overstating the value of assets on companies' balance sheets, with potentially disastrous consequences.

The 10 signatories to the position paper, who include members from the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, the Local Pension Funds Authority, the National Employment Savings Trust and the UK Shareholders' Association, have called for a reintroduction of the principle that financial statements should be "prudent".