It is often the case that no news should be seen as good news. And that is certainly how it looked when the US regulatory body, the Securities and Exchange Commission, issued the first progress report on its workplan which may, or may not, lead to IFRS becoming the financial reporting norm for the largest US companies, and the US, as a result, joining the rest of the world in the use of one financial reporting language. The SEC had promised to publish the report by the end of October and, keeping the tension high to the end, released it on the last working day of the month.
Indeed on the day before, at the SEC's New York office, the Monitoring Board which oversees the work of the IASB had met. And SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro had joked afterwards that the SEC could hold the report out for longer and put it up on the website on Halloween night. Instead it appeared on the website at the same time that IASB Chairman, Sir David Tweedie, and FASB interim Chair, Leslie Seidman, were speaking at the annual Deloitte IFRS Summit, also held in New York. So for two days activity and discussion was intense. The progress report shows, as such reports should, that progress has been made. But there is nothing in the report to suggest which way the final argument may go. It is a sober consideration of the efforts which have been made to evaluate the IFRS process and all of its possible consequences.
See full Article.
Posts
