June 04, 2009
FASB Chief Not Pleased About Proposed IFRS Changes
Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Chief David Herz, has expressed displeasure about the proposed changes to IAS 39 Financial Instruments. A big concern to US standard setters is that US accounting standards are not subject to political pressure. Herz believes that recent proposed changes to IAS 39 are yielding to political pressures to make bank financial states appear more positive.
An article published by Reuters discusses these points.
Excerpts are here:
"The U.S. body said it won't be shoehorned into change.
"We desire to get to a common good answer with the IASB and we will make best efforts to do so, but some of the directions we are currently headed in are not to the liking of our board," FASB chairman, Bob Herz, told a meeting of the Financial Crisis Advisory Group."
Does not look good for a new version of IAS 39 for this year. Maybe cooler heads will prevail on this topic. We will see how it shakes out.
But let's face it, many people wonder why the IASB cares so much about what the US thinks on IFRS when the current US administration has shown no interest in the IFRS Roadmap. They seem to have enforcement on their minds not convergence on accounting standards. The current administration has shown more of a leaning toward protectionism in its latest budgets and policies. So it would not be surprising to see little interest in trying to become more involved in world standards instead of a US centric view.
US companies would find IFRS less costly to utilize on an ongoing basis and less oriented towards rules and more principles based.
If your company is moving to IFRS and needs a cost effective solution, and wants to do it in a sensible and cost effective way, contact http://www.ifrspartner.com/ for more information on IFRS Partner® for companies beginning their conversion efforts. To find out more about events demonstrating these solutions, see http://ifrspartner.com/pages/events.htm
An article published by Reuters discusses these points.
Excerpts are here:
"The U.S. body said it won't be shoehorned into change.
"We desire to get to a common good answer with the IASB and we will make best efforts to do so, but some of the directions we are currently headed in are not to the liking of our board," FASB chairman, Bob Herz, told a meeting of the Financial Crisis Advisory Group."
Does not look good for a new version of IAS 39 for this year. Maybe cooler heads will prevail on this topic. We will see how it shakes out.
But let's face it, many people wonder why the IASB cares so much about what the US thinks on IFRS when the current US administration has shown no interest in the IFRS Roadmap. They seem to have enforcement on their minds not convergence on accounting standards. The current administration has shown more of a leaning toward protectionism in its latest budgets and policies. So it would not be surprising to see little interest in trying to become more involved in world standards instead of a US centric view.
US companies would find IFRS less costly to utilize on an ongoing basis and less oriented towards rules and more principles based.
If your company is moving to IFRS and needs a cost effective solution, and wants to do it in a sensible and cost effective way, contact http://www.ifrspartner.com/ for more information on IFRS Partner® for companies beginning their conversion efforts. To find out more about events demonstrating these solutions, see http://ifrspartner.com/pages/events.htm
