SEC panel on streamlining financial reporting

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28 Jun 2007

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is forming an advisory committee to study the US financial reporting system.

The SEC Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting will study the causes of complexity and recommend to the Commission how to make financial reports clearer and more beneficial to investors, reduce costs and unnecessary burdens for preparers, and better utilize advances in technology to enhance all aspects of financial reporting. The advisory committee will focus on the following areas:
  • the current approach to setting financial accounting and reporting standards;
  • the current process of regulating compliance by registrants and financial professionals with accounting and reporting standards;
  • the current systems for delivering financial information to investors and accessing that information;
  • other environmental factors that drive unnecessary complexity and reduce transparency to investors;
  • whether there are current accounting and reporting standards that impose costs that outweigh the resulting benefits, and
  • whether this cost-benefit analysis is likely to be impacted by the growing use of international accounting standards.
The committee will be chaired by Robert Pozen, the former vice chairman of Fidelity Investments, and will include 13 to 17 members to be named in the next couple weeks, The group is expected to issue a final report in August 2008. The new SEC advisory group will include an observer from the International Accounting Standards Board. Click for:

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