"... My office has been closely monitoring the FASB/IASB convergence projects and, in many cases, have held discussions with the FASB and the SEC. We've also had substantive discussions at the last two meetings of our Standing Advisory Group regarding the pace, volume and nature of changes being proposed to the U.S. accounting framework... the SAG discussions expressed concern about the pace, volume and nature of accounting change and the potential audit implications.

Our SAG has also advised us to consider new auditing standards that may be necessary in light of the changes in the accounting framework, so that we don't see any slippage in audit quality and, therefore, in the reliability of financial reports.

I want to fully acknowledge the efforts of the FASB/IASB and SEC in pursuing the goal of a single set of high quality standards. But for all of us in standards-setting, we're at a crossroad and the direction we each take has great significance for the future."