26th February 2010:

A modest step forward

Earlier this week the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a statement confirming their support for a single-set of high quality global accounting standards.  Although this fell short of explicitly stating that this will be IFRS, it did set out a basis (subject to addressing a number of issues) whereby the US could adopt IFRS in 2015 – or shortly thereafter.
 
The issues mentioned by the SEC all seem reasonable and include the need to ensure that “...accounting standards are set by an independent standard-setter for the benefit of investors.” and “Determining whether IFRS is sufficiently developed and consistent in application for use as the single set of accounting standards in the US...”.
 
Whilst it would have been good to see the SEC set a date certain for US adoption of IFRS (subject to conditions) it was probably unrealistic to expect this.  However, it was good to see what I think is a positive step forward toward the adoption of IFRS in the US and a clear commitment to moving towards a single set of global accounting standards.

 Standards & Regulators  0 Comments February 26th, 2010