Because of the significant progress that has been made in developing IFRS as a high-quality accounting standard – and in light of its rapid and growing acceptance around the world – the Commission last year voted unanimously to take the next step on the SEC's 'roadmap' announced three years ago. As a result, foreign issuers can now file their financial statements with the SEC using IFRS, without need of keeping a second set of books under US GAAP.

Then, last August, the Commission issued a Concept Release seeking advice on whether US issuers should be allowed to choose to prepare financial statements using IFRS. And in December 2007 we held roundtables on this subject and heard from more than two dozen experts. The many comments the Commission has received make one thing exceptionally clear: the rapidly growing acceptance in the rest of the world of IFRS as a high-quality accounting standard will make the US GAAP-IFRS convergence project increasingly important for US investors and issuers. In 2008, the Division of Corporation Finance and the Office of the Chief Accountant, led by Wayne Carnall and Julie Erhardt, will formally propose to the Commission an updated 'roadmap' that lays out a schedule, and appropriate milestones on which the schedule will be conditioned, for continuing the progress that the United States is making in moving to accept IFRS in this country.