Under interest group and related capture theories of regulation, the regulator responds to the
demand of specific groups. These groups exert political influence and lobby the regulator for
favourable outcomes. Direct lobbying can be in the form of comment letters or commentaries.
McLeay et al. (2000) examine lobbying activities of three representative organisations (preparers,
auditors, and academic experts) on draft accounting legislation in Germany and provide evidence
that the industry lobby group exerts the greatest influence on the regulator during the transformation
of the EU Fourth Accounting Directive into German accounting law. Brown and Tarca
(2001) show how different interest groups influence the Australian government during the
Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (CLERP) and how the regulator balances
the forces and the informational needs of interested parties as a key element of accounting
standard setting. Moreover, in developed countries, we expect that the accounting and auditing
profession may fear to lose power and control over standard setting to the IASB. A similar
argument can be made with regard to regulators themselves, who seek to maximise their own
utility and power.