Ian Mackintosh speaks at US conference

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09 Dec 2014

At the annual American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments being held in Washington DC this week, IASB Vice-Chairman, Ian Mackintosh participated in a panel discussion and delivered prepared remarks. In the subsequent discussion, Mr Mackintosh reflected on the statement made earlier in the conference by US SEC Chief Accountant, James Schnurr on the possibility of permitting voluntary supplementary use of IFRSs in the United States.

In his prepared remarks, Mr Mackintosh's discussed the global success of IFRS and noted the increasing relevancy of IFRS to many American companies. He discussed the convergence project, stressing the importance of the almost-finished leases project and stated, "Convergence was not a perfect process but it was a good one and we achieved a great deal. The similarities between the two sets of Standards are bigger than the differences."

During the question and answer portion of the panel session, Mr Mackintosh discussed Mr Schnurr's earlier remarks on the possibility of permitting voluntary supplementary use of IFRSs in the United States. He stated that he was pleased that the discussion was back on the agenda and that Mr Schnurr had worked so diligently, catching up to speed in the two months since taking on the role of Chief Accountant. However, Mr Mackintosh cautioned that this marks only restarting the discussion; and success of the possible fourth approach would depend upon the number of registrants who would volunteer to provide the IFRS supplementation.

Mr Mackintosh's prepared remarks are available on the IASB's website. His comments on Mr Schnurr's speech were provided by Deloitte observers.

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