Convergence between US GAAP and IFRS: Acceptance of IFRS by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Abstract

The world's capital markets stand to benefit significantly from widespread acceptance and use of global accounting standards that are high quality, comprehensive and rigorously applied. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced in April 2007 a series of actions it intends to take relating to the acceptance of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). To implement this, the SEC proposed in July 2007 amendments to Form 20-F and conforming changes to SEC Regulation S-X to accept financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS without reconciliation to US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) when contained in the filings of foreign private issuers with the SEC. This paper analyses the forces driving convergence between US GAAP and IFRS and discusses the most recent activities by the SEC in relation to IFRS and international cooperation, including the SEC vote as of 15 November 2007, to allow foreign private issuers to prepare their financial statements using IFRS as issued by the IASB without reconciling to US GAAP.