EC urges US SEC to replace US GAAP with IAS
21 Feb 2002
In an interview with the Financial Times, Frits Bolkestein, European internal market commissioner, urged the US SEC to replace the 'cookery book' approach of US GAAP with the more 'substance over form' approach of IAS.
The Commission plans to require listed European Companies to Use IAS by 2005. Mr. Bolkestein expressed concern about what he felt is a rule-book approach of US GAAP: "You tick the boxes and out come the answers," he is quoted as saying. "Having rules is a good thing, but having rigid rules is not the best thing.... American investors are no more protected than European investors." At a minimum, he will ask the SEC to allow US-listed European companies to submit IAS financial statements without reconciliation to US GAAP. Click for the full Financial Times Story.
