FASB Chairman Herz speaks about simplification of US GAAP

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16 Jun 2005

In a (PDF 62k) at the 24th Annual SEC and Financial Reporting Institute Conference on 2 June 2005, FASB Chairman Robert H.

Herz spoke about the FASB's plans to simplify US generally accepted accounting principles with the twin goals of reducing the volume and disjointedness of standards, rules, and regulations and reducing the complexity of individual pronouncements.

The fact is that we call US GAAP is comprised of over 2000 individual pronouncements issued by various bodies and organizations in a variety of forms. FASB Statements, Interpretations, Technical Bulletins, Staff Q&As;, APB Opinions and Interpretations, AcSEC Statements of Position, AICPA Audit & Accounting Guides and Technical Practice Aides, SEC Accounting Series Releases, Staff Accounting Bulletins, letters and speeches, EITF consensuses and D topics, and so on and so forth. And because the various standards, rules, and regulations can sometimes conflict, it needs to be organised into a GAAP hierarchy, you know, levels A, B, C, D.

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