Accounting Convergence Process in Limbo Without U.S. Decision —WSJ CFO Journal

The accounting rulemakers said they are seeking more feedback about whether groups of companies could phase in IFRS and how investors are dealing with the two sets of accounting rules currently existing in the United States.

Emily Chasen at WSJ CFO Report writes [trial subscription required] that accounting rulemakers in the U.S. and abroad are calling for collaboration even as U.S. regulators have so far refused to take a clear position on whether they should adopt international accounting rules. But that lack of guidance makes the timing and nature of such cooperation uncertain, the heads of the U.S. and international accounting standards setters said Thursday.

Accounting rulemakers in the U.S. and abroad are calling for collaboration even as U.S. regulators have so far refused to take a clear position on whether they should adopt international accounting rules. But that lack of guidance makes the timing and nature of such cooperation uncertain, the heads of the U.S. and international accounting standards setters said Thursday.

The  Securities and Exchange Commission staff did not make any recommendationin its long-awaited work plan on International Financial Reporting Standards in July, and further attempts to pressure the U.S. to make a decision have been met with silence. But the likelihood of a decision is now even more uncertain with the appointment this month of Elisse Walter to SEC Chairman, replacing, at least temporarily, former SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro. Walter said she supported a single set of high quality standards and a continued convergence process in a speech in May.

“The SEC has not made a decision that we should adopt IFRS, and so the question is what do we do in the meantime,” Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman Leslie Seidman said in comments to a New York State Society of Security Analysts conference in New York on Thursday. Even in the absence of a decision from the SEC, “we do believe that having globally comparable standards is extremely important,” she added.

Read the whole piece here. 

 

Making it All Work Together is a Tough Goal