News

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SEC Commissioner discusses reconciliations

14 Oct 2006

In remarks before the Institute of European Affairs in Dublin recently, US SEC Commissioner Paul S. Atkins spoke about the adoption of IFRSs in Europe, the reconciliation to US GAAP for SEC registrants using IFRSs, and the possibility of the European Commission requiring a reconciliation to IFRSs for companies that trade in Europe and that prepare US GAAP financial statements.

Here is an excerpt from Commissioner Atkins's comments:

The coherent consistent application of IFRS is an essential prerequisite to the elimination of the reconciliation requirement in the United States. It will take us some time to assess how IFRS is being implemented and enforced, but I am optimistic that we will complete our assessment, well within the 2009 goal for reconciliation, and be able to determine that the reconciliation requirement is unnecessary. Our new Chief Accountant, Conrad Hewitt, is committed to working to achieve this objective as quickly as possible.

I am keenly aware that shareholders ultimately bear the costs of reconciliation – like many of our regulations – and these costs are considerable. For this reason, I am very interested in what appears to be growing European sentiment against requiring reconciliation for U.S. issuers that currently use GAAP in their EU filings. Requiring U.S. companies to reconcile their U.S. GAAP financial statements to IFRS would undermine our efforts towards mutual recognition by senselessly diverting attention and energy from our shared, transatlantic objective of making sure that IFRS succeeds. U.S. GAAP is already an established standard that has proven itself to investors over time. The need for reconciliation disappears when IFRS shows itself to be, like GAAP, a consistently applied, high quality set of accounting standards. It is in everyone's best interest to achieve the elimination of the reconciliation requirement as quickly as possible.
Click for Full Speech (PDF 77k).
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World Congress opens in one month

13 Oct 2006

More than 5,000 delegates will convene at the 17th World Congress of Accountants, which opens on 13 November 2006, and continues through 17 November 2006, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Workshop and plenary sessions will be organised around the theme Generating Economic Growth and Stability Worldwide. Session topics will include generating economic growth and stability through the accounting profession in the developing nations, capital markets stability worldwide and the accounting profession, and the role of professional accountants in business in contributing to value creation worldwide. 
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Commissioner McCreevy's remarks on globalised auditing

13 Oct 2006

In a speech titled EU Audit Regulation and International Cooperation, EU Internal Markets Commissioner Charlie McCreevy focused on the implementation of the EU Directive on statutory audit and the attention is being paid to international issues within this process.

An excerpt:

Companies and audit firms have long since gone global. It is us – the legislators and regulators – who have to adapt to this fact. When we design the regulatory framework in our own jurisdictions we also have to think about the effects this will have on others. We live in a world of spill-overs. Rules passed in the EU affect US business and vice-versa. This insight has to be part of the regulatory process right from the start.
Click for:
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A few changes to IASB October meeting agenda

13 Oct 2006

We posted the agenda of the IASB's October 2006 Board meeting in our News Story of 5 October 2006.

The Board has announced the following changes to that agenda. As a result of those changes, the Board will not meet on Friday 20 October 2006.
  • Education session on interest margin hedging postponed
  • IFRS 2 Share-based Payment has moved from Friday 20 October to Wednesday 18 October
  • Annual improvements moved from Friday 20 October to Tuesday 17 October
  • Accounting standards for small and medium-sized entities will begin slightly earlier on Wednesday 18 October
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PCAOB Chairman addresses auditor oversight

12 Oct 2006

Mark W. Olson, Chairman of the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), spoke on Auditor Oversight and its Implications on the Resilience of our Capital Markets at the FEE Conference on Audit Regulation in Brussels today.

Click to Download Chairman Olson's Remarks (PDF 100k). Here is an excerpt:

To illustrate the importance of regulatory coordination to the PCAOB, more than 700 of the [audit] firms registered with the PCAOB are in countries outside the United States, although they may be affiliated with large, U.S. based audit firms. As required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, many of these firms are registered with the PCAOB because they audit non-U.S. companies whose securities trade in U.S. markets and are required to file audited financial statements with the SEC. In addition, as also provided for in the Act, a number of other non-U.S. firms are registered because they audit or wish to audit significant non-U.S. subsidiaries of multinational U.S. companies. With respect to both categories of firms, the PCAOB continues to work closely with its foreign counterparts to optimize efficiency in the oversight of these non-US firms.
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Agenda for joint IASB-FASB meeting

12 Oct 2006

The International Accounting Standards Board will hold a joint meeting with the US Financial Accounting Standards Board at FASB's offices in Norwalk, Connecticut USA on Monday and Tuesday, 23 and 24 October 2006. The joint meeting agenda is below.

Agenda papers for the meeting can be Downloaded from the IASB Website. If you want to listen to the webcast, please visit the FASB Website Board Meetings Page.

Agenda for Joint IASB-FASB Meeting23-24 October 2006, Norwalk, Connecticut USA

Monday 23 October 2006

  • Liabilities and Equity
  • Conceptual Framework:
    • Drafts of discussion materials for roundtables on measurement bases to be held in the first two months of 2007
    • Plans and procedures for finalising the common conceptual framework
    • Project status, plans, and priorities, focusing on the elements and recognition phase (B) of the project.
  • Insurance

Tuesday 24 October 2006

  • Memorandum of Understanding – Progress discussion
  • Business Combinations II – measurement attribute for business combinations and how to measure noncontrolling interests
  • Financial Statement Presentation
    • short-term and long-term sub-categories in the operating category;
    • presentation of information about liquidity in the notes to the financial statements;
    • the definition of financing liabilities, treasury assets, and investments (for purposes of determining what should be included in those categories);
    • application of the measurement working principle;
  • Revenue Recognition
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Reminder about comment deadline on puttable instruments

11 Oct 2006

We remind you that the deadline for responding to the IASB's Exposure Draft 'Financial Instruments Puttable at Fair Value and Obligations Arising on Liquidation' is 23 October 2006. .

We remind you that the deadline for responding to the IASB's Exposure Draft Financial Instruments Puttable at Fair Value and Obligations Arising on Liquidationis 23 October 2006. Click for:

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Update on accounting standards in Pakistan

11 Oct 2006

Asad Ali Shah, a partner in the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu member firm in Pakistan, spoke on Implementation of IFRS and SME Standards–Pakistan Experience at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) in Geneva earlier this week.

ISAR is sponsored by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Click to download Mr Shah's Presentation (PDF 36k).

 

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'An EU Integrated Globalised World'

11 Oct 2006

In a speech titled (PDF 80k) before the World Congress of Financial Executives in Berlin, EU Internal Markets Commissioner Charlie McCreevy touched on several IFRSs-related matters.

He noted that Japan is making progress in converging its accounting standards with IFRSs. And he mentioned that the European Commission will be addressing implementation of global standards including IFRSs and Basel II.
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IASB will form an employee benefits working group

10 Oct 2006

The International Accounting Standards Board is seeking members for a new Working Group to help in its new project on Employee Benefits.

The project, to be conducted in two phases, will be a comprehensive review of the accounting required by IAS 19 Employee Benefits. The first phase will consider revisions that would achieve significant improvements in the short term, with a view to an interim standard being issued in three or four years' time. As the first step in its due process the IASB intends to publish a discussion paper in 2007. The issues to be included in the first phase of the project are:
  • accounting for intermediate risk plans (including cash balance plans), including definition of defined benefit and defined contribution arrangements
  • smoothing and deferral mechanisms
  • presentation and disclosure
  • treatment of settlements and curtailments.
The Working Group will provide a variety of expert perspectives on accounting for post-employment benefits, including those of actuaries, auditors and other experts, and preparers and users of financial statements, and regulators. Nominations for Working Group membership are invited by 17 November 2006. Click for Press Release (PDF 56k), which has details about the nomination process.

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