SEC Unanimously Approves Exposing Proposed IFRS Roadmap for Public Comment
AICPA | August 27, 2008
In what all of its members agreed was a significant decision, the Securities and Exchange Commission today unanimously agreed to a series of steps that could lead to the required use of IFRS by U.S. issuers by 2014.
The SEC vote, which came at its regularly scheduled meeting, included allowing for the early adoption of IFRS by 110 of the largest publicly held companies in the U.S. The companies represent approximately 14 percent of the total U.S. market capitalization. The SEC proposal would allow these companies to begin using IFRS at the end of 2009 in connection with their 2010 filings.
The commissioners agreed that the SEC would determine in 2011 whether to mandate the transition to IFRS by all U.S. companies in 2014. However, they left open the possibility of sequencing the IFRS rollout based on the size of the company.
The limited early use of IFRS was one of seven milestones that would influence the SEC’s 2011 decision on whether to move forward. The other milestones are:
- Improvements in accounting standards
- The accountability and funding of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation
- Improvement in the ability to use interactive data for IFRS reporting
- Education and training in the U.S. relating to IFRS
- The anticipated timing of future rulemaking by the commission
- Potential implementation of the mandatory use of IFRS, including considerations relating to whether any mandatory use of IFRS should be staged or sequenced among groups of companies based on their market capitalization.
The SEC voted to issue a proposing release, which will provide a 60-day comment period from the date the release is published in the Federal Register. As part of this effort, the SEC will request feedback on two possible alternatives to how to handle reconciliation.
(IFRS.com will notify readers when the release is published and the 60-day period begins.)
