IASB wants U.S. IFRS commitment by 2011

“My view is the U.S. needs to commit by 2011 one way or the other,” International Accounting Standards Board chairman (IASB) Sir David Tweedie said this week. Speaking at the American Accounting Association’s annual meeting, Tweedie expressed frustration as he waits for the SEC to decide if and when to approve a roadmap for transitioning from GAAP to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Currently, there are 117 countries that either adopted or signed to adopt IFRS. Tweedie expects there to be 150 by 2011.

“Where is the USA? That is a question I am asked all around the world,” Tweedie said. “If you’re going to have global standards, we need the U.S., but it can’t go on indefinitely. We’ve been converging for seven years.”

The audience questioned Tweedie if he has received any feedback from Schapiro and other members of the SEC on their concerns with IFRS. “They’re obviously concerned about the U.S. environment here. They clearly want to do what is right for the United States. Is the cost too much at the present moment? It is in the middle of a recession, but then you’re not being asked to change right now. There is the option, or actually requirement, of going back to U.S. GAAP if you don’t do IFRS.”

The timetable in the proposed roadmap called for a vote by 2011 on whether or not to go ahead with IFRS adoption. The SEC received 120 comments regarding the proposed roadmap. Wayne Carnall, the chief accountant for the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, spoke on an AICPA financial reporting panel last week and addressed what the SEC considers a relatively low number of responses.

“Only about 1% of the companies in the United States that would be impacted by this change, if we were to adopt it, decided to comment. I thought that was a surprisingly low number,” Carnall said. In comparison, Carnall pointed to FASB fair value staff positions issued in March that received 700 comments in a 15-day comment period. “Yet, on a proposal to change the reporting framework in the United States we got 120 comments,” he noted.

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