FASB approves an agenda project on international convergence
10 Oct 2002
The United States Financial Accounting Standards Board has added to its agenda a short-term international convergence project that will be conducted jointly with the International Accounting Standards Board.
The FASB also voted to authorise its staff to expand its research project on international convergence. With respect to the short-term project, the FASB established a goal of 31 December 2003 for issuance of a final Statement that would "eliminate or reduce many, if not all, of the differences to be addressed in that project".
The new US Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002, approved by the US Congress in July 2002, permits the SEC to look to a private-sector accounting standard-setter, such as FASB, provided that the standard-setter "considers, in adopting accounting principles, ... the extent to which international convergence on high quality accounting standards is necessary or appropriate in the public interest and for the protection of investors."