With an announcement in August 2008, the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) moved the United States closer to
adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The
SEC is proposing a "road map" that could lead to the use
of IFRS by U.S. issuers beginning as early as 2014 for large
accelerated filers, 2015 for accelerated filers, and 2016 for
nonaccelerated filers. Although the SEC will not decide until 2011
whether to adopt IFRS, speeches by several members of the SEC
staff, made in connection with the announcement of its IFRS road
map, referred to seven milestones that must be accomplished prior
to adoption.
Management and boards of directors of U.S. companies would be
wise to start planning for the eventual convergence of U.S.
generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and IFRS. The first
steps should be to perform an impact analysis and assess your road
map, technical accounting, technology, and organizational
issues.
