SEC Chairman Christopher Cox

• An excerpt from his address:

The rationale for a global standard, rather than the Babel of competing and sometimes contradictory national standards, has been often stated. But it is so important that it bears repeating. Global accounting standards would improve investor confidence in the market, so long as the standards are high-quality, comprehensive and rigorously applied. They'd allow investors to draw better comparisons among investment options. They'd also lower costs for issuers, who would no longer have to incur the cost of preparing financial statements using different sets of accounting standards. And those lower costs would benefit the company's shareholders, who ultimately bear the burden of the entire cost of the financial reporting system.

• Click for Chairman Cox's Address (PDF 124k)

EC Commissioner McCreevy

• An excerpt from his address:

I am convinced accepting IFRS without reconciliation in the US capital markets will have very positive effects. It will bring more openness to capital markets, it will benefit US investors, and it will facilitate access for third country issuers to US financial markets. And contribute to a more coherent global regulatory structure. Let me underline this: this is in the US' interest, just as much as in ours and can and will be done in a way that will benefit and safeguard US investors.

• Click for Commissioner McCreevy's Address  (PDF 71k)

Webcast

• Link to SEC Webcast Archive of the Roundtable

Currently, there are over 760 non-US firms from 83 countries registered with the PCAOB, including approximately 265 firms located in the European Union, some portion of which will be subject to inspection. Once registered with the PCAOB, non-US firms meeting certain criteria are subject to the inspection requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Similarly, under the European Union's new Directive on Statutory Auditors, certain non-European audit firms will be required to be inspected by European regulators unless their home-country system is considered to be equivalent to the public oversight requirements set forth in the Directive

FASB Developments

• FASB Issues Statement 159
• FSP Updates Illustrations and Q&As for Statements 87, 88, and 106
• FASB Issues Proposed FSP on Interpretation 48
• Credit Loss Project Added to FASB's Agenda

AICPA Developments

• AICPA Issues TPAs
• AICPA Issues Interpretations on Compilation and Review of Financial Statements
• Practice Alert on Dating of Auditor's Report
• AICPA Announces Center for Audit Quality

SEC Developments

• Roundtable on IFRS 'Roadmap'
• SEC Names Deputy Chief Accountant

FASAB Developments

• Preliminary Views on Accounting for Social Insurance
• Exposure Draft on NASA's Space Exploration Equipment
• FASAB Establishes Fiscal Sustainability Task Force

International Developments

• Exposure Draft on Financial Reporting by Small and Medium-Sized Entities
• Exposure Draft Proposes Amendments to Related-Party Disclosures
• Extension of Comment Period on Fair Value Measurements

7-9 March 2007, London Wednesday -- 7 March 2007 - afternoon only

• IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement – Hedging future cash flows with purchased options 

• IAS 18 Revenue – Customer contributions 

• Preliminary discussion of IFRIC issues
  • IAS 39 – Hedging multiple risks with a single derivative hedging instrument 
  The issue: When a single derivative hedging instrument is used to hedge more than one different type of risk, does IAS 39 allow an entity to impute notional cash flows to split the fair value of the derivative hedging instrument into multiple components for the purposes of assessing and measuring hedge effectiveness?
  • IAS 39 – Scope of IAS 39 paragraph 11A 
  The issue: Does IAS 39 paragraph 11A apply to all contractual arrangements that contain one or more embedded derivatives? In particular, does that paragraph apply to hybrid contracts that contain financial or non-financial hosts outside the scope of IAS 39?
  • IAS 18 Revenue – Gaming transactions 
  The issue: How should a gaming institution account for bets or wagers received? Do such transactions give rise to revenue or are unsettled wagers financial instruments that should be accounted for using IAS 39? IFRIC members will discuss any alternative views or treatments that they feel have sufficient merit to be included in a staff paper to be presented to the IFRIC. IFRIC members will also be asked whether, in their experience, widespread divergence exists in this area.

Thursday 8 March 2007

• D20 Customer Loyalty Programmes – Review of comments on D20
• IFRS 5 Non-current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations – Plan to sell the controlling interest in a subsidiary.
• IAS 18 Revenue – Real estate sales
• D19 IAS 19–The Asset Ceiling: Availability of Economic Benefits and Minimum Funding Requirements – Review of comments on D19
• IAS 38 Intangible Assets – Advertising and promotional expenditure and catalogues

Friday 9 March 2007 - Morning Only

• IAS 21 Foreign Exchange: Hedging a net investment in a foreign operation
• Review of Tentative Agenda Decisions published in January IFRIC Update
  • IAS 17 Leases – Sale and leasebacks with repurchase agreements
  • IAS 19 Employee Benefits – Special wage tax
  • IAS 36 Impairment of Assets – Identifying cash generating units in the retail industry
  • IAS 39 – Written options in retail energy contracts
  • IAS 39 – Assessing hedge effectiveness of an interest rate swap in a cash flow hedge
• Staff Recommendations for Tentative Agenda Decisions
  • IFRS 3 Business Combinations – Re-assessments on a business combination
  • IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements and IAS 39 – Current or non-current presentation of derivatives not designated as hedging instruments in effective hedges
  • IAS 16 Property, Plant and Equipment and IAS 18 – Sale of assets held for rental
  • IAS 19 Employee Benefits – Curtailments and negative past service costs (Agenda paper 9(iv))