US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
chief accountant James Kroeker has suggested that the regulator may
be edging its way towards endorsing IFRS.
Kroeker made the comments in a meeting with
the IFRS advisory panel in London this week.
The ‘endorsement’ is one of the four discussed
approaches for IFRS adoption so far and would see the US formally
endorsing new or amended IFRS before they become legally
binding.
IFRS endorsement would also mean that SEC will
retain its sovereign right to evaluate future global rules
something that the US could loose if it fails to make such a
commitment.
After a strategic review of the IFRS
Foundation early this month, the IFRS Trustees took a more hard
line view on convergence. It stated that while it assumes there
will be a positive response on adoption from the US and other large
economies such as Japan soon, ‘failure to make such commitments’
may result in the strategy being re-reviewed subsequently leading
to changes to the Trustees and the International Accounting
Standards Board composition.
This is likely to be one of the main reasons
for Kroeker’s recent comments.
The SEC said that it will need a few more
months to make its final position clear.
