Chief Accountant of the SEC comments on IFRS in the United States and convergence
May 08, 2015
On May 7, 2015, at a financial reporting conference at Baruch College in New York City, Jim Schnurr, Chief Accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave an update on some of the recent activities of the Office of the Chief Accountant as well as some of the current thinking with respect to convergence and IFRS.
Obviously, this new thinking triggered many reactions from constituents, including preparers, investors, auditors, regulators and standard-setters. Reactions revealed three key themes:
There is virtually no support to have the SEC mandate IFRS for all registrants. There is little support for the SEC to provide an option allowing domestic companies to prepare their financial statements under IFRS. There is continued support for the objective of a single set of high-quality, globally accepted accounting standards.
Review the full text of Mr. Schnurr's speech on the SEC website.