Margolis says: "It’s possible New Zealand co-ops will end up with a definition of cooperative shares that doesn't reflect the reality that over the past 150 years declaring their member shares as assets have not given their members, or anyone else for that matter, any problems."

"It's important to remember that when someone buys a share in a cooperative, they're paying a membership fee, one which is returnable when the member leaves the co-op, and not buying a financial investment. This is why I prefer to call people who have shares in a cooperative 'members' rather than 'shareholders', as to call them the latter, to my mind, severely muddies the water."

The International Co-operative Alliance web site has extensive documentation on its efforts to lobby the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

ICA documents related to the IAS lobbying efforts are extensive:

• ICA Comments on perpetual instruments and puttable or mandatorily redeemable instruments, 15 June 2009 (pdf)
• ICA Comment on the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) discussion paper "Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Equity", 5 September 2008 (pdf)
• ICA Comments on the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) discussion paper "distinguishing between liabilities and equity" and its potential impacts on co-operative businesses, 28 July 2008 (pdf)
• ICA Comments on the United States Federal Accounting Standards Board (FASB) "Equity and Liabilities Preliminary Views" document, 30 May 2008 (pdf)
• ICA Comment on the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) Exposure Draft of a Proposed IFRS for SMEs, December 2007 (pdf)
• Declaración del Seminario Internacional sobre Impacto de las Nuevas Normas Internacionales de Contabilidad en las Cooperativas, 22 de noviembre 2005, Buenos Aires (Argentina) (pdf in Spanish only)
• "Lobbying activities in the field of IFRS: the views of the European Association of Co-operative Banks", September 2005 (pdf)
• Result of the IAS 32 / D8 consultation, September 2004 (pdf)
• Letter to ICA Members on International Financial Reporting Interpretation Committee (IFRIC) interpretation on dealing with co-operative shares, 13 August 2004 (pdf)
• European Association of Co-operative Banks Guidelines, July, 2004 (pdf)
• Japanese Consumer Co-operative Union (JCCU) Appeal to the IASB Decision 20 April 2004
• ICA Press Release: Accounting Standards Threaten Co-operative Identity, 20 November 2003 (pdf)
• NCBA Hails Deferral of Rule Reclassifying Co-op Member Equity as Debt; Decision Heads Off Chaos in Co-op Accounting, November, 2003 (pdf)
• Note on 'What are co-operative shares?', October, 2003 (pdf)
• Note concerning the application of IAS 32 to co-operatives, 2003 (pdf)
• Letter to ICA Members on IAS 32, November, 2003 (pdf)