SEC Proposes Roadmap For U.S. Issuers To Switch To IFRS

On November 14, 2008, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published its long-awaited "roadmap" to a potential future mandatory requirement for U.S. issuers to prepare and issue financial reports under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) instead of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (U.S. GAAP). Comments on the rule proposal are due no later than February 19, 2009.

The SEC's proposed rulemaking represents a significant step in the ongoing collaborative effort among the SEC, IASB, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and other international securities and accounting regulators to promote the development of a single high-quality set of global accounting standards to keep pace with the increasingly global nature of the financial marketplace, where even the most unsophisticated U.S. investor can purchase foreign equity securities listed on a non-U.S.