U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission Approves Statement On Global Accounting Standards

On February 24, 2010, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") issued a statement (the "Statement") reaffirming its belief that a single set of high-quality, globally accepted accounting standards would benefit U.S. investors and facilitate cross-border capital formation.

The Statement follows the SEC's release in November 2008 of a series of milestones, otherwise known as the proposed Roadmap, to guide it in determining whether to require U.S. domestic issuers to use financial statements prepared in accordance with international financial reporting standards ("IFRS") in the reports they file with the SEC. The Roadmap contemplated that in 2011 the SEC would be able to decide whether to require the use of IFRS by some U.S. issuers beginning in 2014. The Roadmap also contemplated allowing certain U.S. issuers to voluntarily use IFRS in filings for fiscal years ending after December 15, 2009, but this has not been implemented.