Chairman Cox speaks on IFRS in United States
20 Nov 2008
US SEC Chairman Christopher Cox spoke on 'The Future of International Standards and Cooperation in Light of the Credit Crisis' at the FEI 2008 Current Financial Reporting Issues Conference in New York on 18 November 2008. Among other things, Chairman Cox discussed the principles that are critical to the success of IFRSs as 'a uniter of the world's capital markets and a powerful tool for investors everywhere'.
- First, the standards must be crafted in the interest of investors. That has to be their overarching purpose.
- The second principle for the success of IFRS is that the standard setting process must be transparent. That is essential not only to maintain investor confidence, but to ensure the integrity and quality of the standards.
- Third, the standard setter must be independent.
- The standard setter must also be accountable.
- All of the stakeholders themselves must participate in the standard setting process in order to ensure the continued success of IFRS.
Chairman Cox also noted:
| The fact that today, two-thirds of American investors own securities of foreign companies means that the SEC has an abiding interest in ensuring that IFRS are truly high quality and consistently applied across jurisdictions. Whatever the future of IFRS for US issuers, retail and institutional investors alike in our country are relying upon IFRS today. |
Click to view Chairman Cox's speech The Future of International Standards and Cooperation in Light of the Credit Crisis (PDF 45k).
