Other listed companies may use IAS or US GAAP, as well as Austrian GAAP.

Beresford, writing in Accountancy Age, is concerned about the trend, particularly in the US, to have a "detailed accounting rule for everything, no matter how narrow or obscure the issue.... Accountants should encourage the new IASB to emphasise a principles-based approach. Further, as part of the commitment to convergence, it is time for the FASB and SEC to change their behaviour and become more like the rest of the world."

This version includes a quarterly summary of IASB news plus Asia-Pacific country updates.

The Federation des Experts Comptables Europeens (FEE), which represents the accounting profession in Europe, points out that compliance with the existing EC Accounting Directives would continue to be required. FEE is concerned that there are incompatibilities between the Directives and IAS and sees an "urgent need for modernisation of the Directives". FEE has published a Discussion Paper on the Modernisation of the Directives (PDF, 114 kb). The paper discusses both the strategic and technical issues that are at stake and gives the advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches for modernisation. FEE's preferred solution would be to exempt listed companies that apply IAS from the EC Accounting Directives. Click for FEE Press Release.

It is a challenge born less out of crisis and more out of evolutionary progress.... As regulators around the world continue the process of developing a set of international accounting standards, some would like the US to embrace standards that would be of higher quality than those currently used in many countries but less rigorous than US GAAP. That would be a mistake.

FASB has just released an analysis of the comments on the exposure draft. While many respondents agreed with the basic proposal that goodwill is a non-wasting asset, most respondents disagreed with the details of the goodwill-impairment model. A sizeable group of respondents, primarily auditors and accounting academicians, disagreed with the basic model. A principal concern expressed by this group is that "an impairment-only accounting method for goodwill moves U.S. GAAP further from international harmonization". Business Combinations is one of the IASC projects handed over to the new IASB.

On the agenda:

Business Combinations - preliminary discussions Extractive Industries - presentation and discussion IAS 39 Implementation Guidance - discussion Improvements Project - preliminary discussion Interpretations - discussion Preface to the Standards - preliminary discussion Reporting on the Internet - presentation and discussion Style of new Standards - discussion Technical Agenda - further discussion of administrative items On 24 May IASB will meet, in a public session, with the chairs of those national accounting standards-setting bodies that have a formal liaison relationship with IASB. They are Australia/New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, UK, and US. The meeting will focus on coordinating agendas and setting out convergence goals.

Currently, 127 companies are included in the Smax list. Smax is intended to be a "quality segment" of companies that have agreed to "meet increased criteria of transparency and publicity according to international standards".

Agenda items:

• SIC-D27: Transactions in the Legal Form of a Lease and Leaseback
• Business Combinations - Transactions among enterprises under common control
• Revenue - Barter transactions involving advertising services
• Intangible Assets - website costs
• Reporting Currency - Translation from measurement currency to presentation currency
• Disclosure - Service concessions
• Consolidation / Equity Method - Potential voting rights
• Earnings per share - Preference dividends
• Financial Instruments - Issuance with a put option exercisable at the instrument's fair value
• Indefeasible right of use of assets
• Financial Instruments - Classification of preference shares
• SIC-12 Consolidation - Special Purpose Entities (SPEs)

Click to go to Summary of IASB's 18-20 April Meeting. It had originally been presented as several lengthy news items.