International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC)

About the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC)

Formation of the International Accounting Standards Committee

The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) was formed in 1973 through an agreement made by professional accountancy bodies from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and the United States of America. Additional sponsoring members were added in subsequent years, and in 1982 the sponsoring "members" of the IASC comprised all of the professional accountancy bodies that were members of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC).

From its formation in 1973 until a comprehensive reorganisation in 2000, the structure for setting International Accounting Standards was known as the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC).

The International Accounting Standards Committee was essentially the structure, rather than a committee in the traditional sense of a group of people. There was no actual "committee" of that name.

Elements of the old IASC structure

Major components of the old IASC structure were:

IASC Board – described below
Consultative Group – an advisory body representing a wide range of international organisations with an interest in accounting
Standing Interpretations Committee (SIC) – developed and invited public comment on interpretations of IASC Standards, subject to final approval by the IASC Board
Advisory Council – oversight body (despite its name, the Advisory Council functioned more like the Board of Trustees of the current IFRS Foundation)
Steering Committees – expert task forces for individual agenda projects.

About the IASC Board

The standard-setting board of the IASC was known as the IASC Board. The IASC Board had 13 country members and up to 3 additional organisational members who operated on a part-time, volunteer basis. Each member was generally represented by two "representatives" and one "technical advisor". The individuals came from a wide range of backgrounds – accounting practice, business (particularly multinational businesses), financial analysis, accounting education, and national accounting standard-setting. The Board also had a number of observer members (including representatives of IOSCO, FASB, and the European Commission) who participated in the debate but did not vote.

The IASC Board promulgated a substantial body of Standards, Interpretations, a Conceptual Framework, and other guidance that was adopted directly by many companies and that was looked to by many national accounting standard-setters in developing national accounting standards.

Moving to the new structure

After nearly 25 years of achievement, IASC concluded in 1997 that to continue to perform its role effectively, it must find a way to bring about convergence between national accounting standards and practices and high-quality global accounting standards. To do that, IASC saw a need to change its structure. In late 1997 IASC formed a Strategy Working Party to re-examine its structure and strategy. (Jacques Manardo, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Global Managing Partner-Strategic Clients, was a member of that group.)

The Strategy Working Party published its Report, in the form of a Discussion Paper, in December 1998. After soliciting comments, the Working Party published its Final Recommendations in November 1999.

The IASC Board approved the proposals unanimously in December 1999, and the IASC member bodies did the same in May 2000. A new IASB Constitution took effect from 1 July 2000. The standards-setting body was renamed the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). It would operate under a new International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation (IASCF, now the IFRS Foundation).

Accordingly, from 1 April 2001, the standards-setting work of the IFRS Foundation was then conducted by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). The IFRS Interpretations Committee develops and solicits comment on interpretive guidance for applying Standards promulgated by the IASB, but the IASB must approve the Interpretations developed by IFRIC.

IASC Board message to the incoming IASB

At its December 2000 meeting, the IASC Board approved a statement to be transmitted to the new International Accounting Standards Board. The Statement comments on current work in progress and expresses some of Board's current thinking based on its work on these items and other discussions. The Board expressed a hope that its successor would continue work on the projects on:

business combinations
present value
reporting financial performance
insurance
extractive industries
financial instruments.

In addition, the Statement suggested the following new projects:

a project on convergence of national and international standards
a new 'improvements project' to deal with relatively minor matters in the existing IASC Standards
share-based payments
intangible assets
narrative reporting outside the notes
update the Framework and Preface to IAS
special version of IAS for small enterprises
review of IAS provisions relating to inflation accounting.

Click for full text of the IASC Board Statement.

Other historical information about the IASC

The historical information about the IASC below is based on tables prepared for The International Accounting Standards Committee: A Political History, by Robert J. Kirsch, 465 pages, published in February 2007 by WoltersKluwer/CCH, ISBN: 978-1-84140-608-4. Product code: UP/KIRSCH-BI7001, order by email: customerservice@cch.co.uk. We are grateful to the author and publisher for permission to post this information.

IASC and IASB voting requirements

Dates	Number of board members	Number of votes needed to approve an IAS
June 1973 - June 1978	9	7
July 1978 - December 1982	11	9
January 1983 - December 1983	12	9
January 1984 - December 1985	13	10
January 1986 - June 1995	14	11
July 1995 - December 1995	15	12
January 1996 - March 2001	16	12
April 2001 - June 2005	14	8
July 2005 —	14	9
Based on a table prepared for The International Accounting Standards Committee: A Political History, by Robert J Kirsch, published in February 2007 by WoltersKluwer/CCH.

Dates and Locations of Meetings of the IASC Full Committee (1973 - 1977) and Board (1977 - 2000)

Year	Meeting dates	Location
1973:	29 June	London
1973:	15 - 16 November	London
1974:	14 - 15 January	Paris
	8 - 9 April	London
	15 - 17 July	London
	5 - 6 November	London
1975:	15 - 16 January	London
	9 - 11 April	Montreal
	9 - 10 July	London
	8 - 10 October	London
1976:	9 - 11 March	London
	6 - 8 July	London
	9 - 11 November	Washington D.C.
1977:	1 - 3 March	Amsterdam
	29 - 30 June	Edinburgh
	18 - 20 October	London
1978:	7 - 9 March	London
	14 - 16 June	Perth (Australia)
	7 - 9 November	London
1979:	27 - 28 February, 1 March	Mexico City
	19 - 21 June	London
	23 - 25 October	London
1980:	11 - 13 March	London
	24 - 27 June	Berlin
	4 - 6 November	Dublin
1981:	24 - 27 March	Tokyo
	23 - 26 June	London
	14 -16 October	London
1982:	24 - 26 March	London
	22 - 25 June	Amsterdam
	24 - 26 November	London
1983:	23 - 25 March	Edinburgh
	14 - 16 June	London
	26 - 28 October	Paris
1984:	14 - 16 March	London
	19 - 21 June	Toronto
	17 - 19 October	Dusseldorf
1985:	6 - 8 March	Rome
	25 - 27 June	New York
	16 - 18 October	London
1986:	5 - 7 March	Dublin
	17 - 19 June	Amsterdam
	5 - 7 November	London
1987:	24 - 27 March	Sydney
1987:	1 - 3 July	Edinburgh
1988:	29 February, 2 - 4 March	Dusseldorf
	22 - 24 June	Toronto
	9 - 11 November	Copenhagen
1989:	12 - 14 April	Brussels
1989:	24 - 25 October	New York
1990:	7 - 9 March	Amsterdam
	20 - 22 June	Paris
	7 - 9 November	Singapore
1991:	27 - 28 February	London
	12 - 14 June	Milan
	5 - 8 November	Seoul
1992:	4 - 6 March	Madrid
	16 - 18 June	Amman
	7 - 9 October	Chicago
1993:	23 - 26 March	Tokyo
	30 June, 1 - 2 July	London
	2 - 5 November	Oslo
1994:	13, 15 - 17 June	Edinburgh
1994:	1 - 4 November	Budapest
1995:	28 - 31 March	Dusseldorf
	8 - 10 May	Amsterdam
	1 - 4 November	Sydney
1996:	27 - 30 March	Brussels
	11 - 14 June	Stockholm
	23 - 28 September	Barcelona
1997:	6 - 9 January	London
	7 - 11 April	Johannesburg
	8 - 12 July	Beijing
	30 - 31 October, 1 - 4 November	Paris
1998:	12 - 16 January	London
	20 - 26 April	Kuala Lumpur
	6 - 10 July	Niagara-on-the-Lake
	9 - 13 November	Zurich
	14 - 16 December	Frankfurt
1999:	16 - 19 March	Washington
	28 - 30 June, 1 - 2 July	Warsaw
	15 - 19 November	Venice
	13 - 16 December	Amsterdam
2000:	13 - 17 March	Sao Paolo
	19 - 23 June	Copenhagen
	16 - 20 October	Tokyo
	11 - 13 December	London
Based on a table prepared for The International Accounting Standards Committee: A Political History, by Robert J Kirsch, published in February 2007 by WoltersKluwer/CCH.

Duration of IASC board meetings per year

Year	Days of board meetings in that year
1973	3
1974	9
1975	10
1976	9
1977	8
1978	9
1979	9
1980	10
1981	11
1982	10
1983	9
1984	9
1985	9
1986	9
1987	7
1988	10
1989	5
1990	9
1991	9
1992	9
1993	11
1994	8
1995	11
1996	14
1997	20
1998	25
1999	18
2000	18
Based on a table prepared for The International Accounting Standards Committee: A Political History, by Robert J Kirsch, published in February 2007 by WoltersKluwer/CCH.

IASC expenditure

Year	Expenditures
1974	£76,000
1979	£153,000
1984	£272,000
1989	£398,000
1994	£998,000
1999	£2,068,000
Based on a table prepared for The International Accounting Standards Committee: A Political History, by Robert J Kirsch, published in February 2007 by WoltersKluwer/CCH.

IASC revenue by source as a percentage of the total

Year	Members' fees	Donations	Publications	Other
1974	88%	11%	-	1%
1979	86	9	-	5
1984	94	-	-	6
1989	91	1	3%	5
1994	54	27	18	1
1996	32	43	16	9
1997	33	34	27	6
1998	29	31	34	6
1999	29	25	39	6
2000	36	6	50	7
Based on a table prepared for The International Accounting Standards Committee: A Political History, by Robert J Kirsch, published in February 2007 by WoltersKluwer/CCH.

Chairmen of the IASC

IASC Chairman	Dates	Home Country
Sir Henry Benson	1973 - 1976	United Kingdom
Joseph P. Cummings	1976 - 1978	United States
John A. Hepworth	1978 - 1980	Australia
J. A. (Hans) Burggraaff	1980 - 1982	Netherlands
Stephen Elliott	1982 - 85	Canada
John L. Kirkpatrick	1985 - 1987	United Kingdom
Georges Bartes de Ruyter	1987 - 1990	France
Arthur Wyatt	1990 - 1993	United States
Eiichi Shiratori	1993 - 1995	Japan
Michael Sharpe	1995 - 1997	Australia
Stig Enevoldsen	1997 - 2000	Denmark
Thomas E Jones	2000 - 2001	United Kingdom
Based on a table prepared for The International Accounting Standards Committee: A Political History, by Robert J Kirsch, published in February 2007 by WoltersKluwer/CCH.

IASC Secretaries (to 1983) and Secretaries-General (from 1984)

IASC Secretary	Dates
Paul Rosenfield	1973 - 1975
W J Brennan	1975 - 1977
R C Nash	1977 - 1979
Allan V C Cook	1979 - 1981
Geoffrey B Mitchell	1981 - 1985
David H Cairns	1985 - 1994
Sir Bryan Carsberg	1995 - 2001
Based on a table prepared for The International Accounting Standards Committee: A Political History, by Robert J Kirsch, published in February 2007 by WoltersKluwer/CCH.

Location and size of IASC-IASB offices

Address	Period	Size (square feet)¹
3 St. Helens Place	1973 - 1978	550
49 - 51 Bedford Row²	1978 - 1983	500³
41 Kingsway	1983 - 1992	1,200
167 Fleet Street	1992 - 1997	2,600
166 Fleet Street	1997 - 2000	4,600
30 Cannon Street	2001 -	11,000
Notes: ¹ 10.76 square feet = 1 square metre ² With an entrance also at 52 - 54 High Holborn ³ As estimated by Allan Cook, then IASC Secretary Based on a table prepared for The International Accounting Standards Committee: A Political History, by Robert J Kirsch, published in February 2007 by WoltersKluwer/CCH.

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