FASB Chairman discusses international collaboration

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07 Dec 2016

During the annual American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments in Washington, D.C., FASB Chairman Russell Golden spoke about the FASB's priorities as the “Five Is” - one of which is "International".

Mr Golden explained that after winding down its bilateral working relationship with the IASB the FASB chose a new approach to achieve greater comparability of global standards: (i) through the continued development and improvement of GAAP, (ii) by actively participating in the development of IFRS, and (iii) by enhancing relationships and communications with other national standard-setters. He stated:

I believe that working toward the development of more comparable global accounting standards is important to reducing complexity in financial reporting. That’s why we continue to collaborate and cooperate with the IASB and national standards setters with an eye toward agreeing on and adopting standards that promote common outcomes. [...]. We have continued to consult with the IASB on issues of mutual interest, even as we’ve strengthened our existing relationships with other standard setters. This has helped promote the broader flow of information and ideas that mutually inform each other’s thinking and contribute to an environment that will foster greater convergence.

In the context of strengthened relationships with other national standard-setters, Mr Golden mentioned individual meetings with standard-setters from Canada, Japan, China, South Korea and other countries and explained that the FASB expects to have joint meetings with them in 2017 to talk about respective priorities and future initiatives. He concluded: "Such relationships help us improve financial reporting, while at the same time bringing us all closer to common solutions around the globe."

The full transcript of the speech is available on the FASB’s website.

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