SEC Proposes Eliminating U.S. GAAP Reconciliations For Foreign Private Issuers Using IFRS

In another step to making the U.S. capital markets more receptive to non-U.S. issuers, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") has proposed a new rule that would allow foreign private issuers to use financial statements prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") as published by the International Accounting Standards Board ("IASB") in their filings with the SEC without the requirement to reconcile those financials statements to generally accepted accounting principles used in the United States ("U.S. GAAP").¹ This would impact what financial statements are required in filing annual reports on Form 20-F, Multijurisdictional Disclosure System filings by Canadian issuers and any registration statement filed by a foreign private issuer. The SEC has also published a concept release to examine whether to permit U.S. issuers to use financial statements under IFRS.