SEC Reconfirms Thrust to Adopt IFRS

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will refocus on their IFRS roadmap.

The SEC's new chief accountant, Jim Kroeker, said in remarks to a New York State Society of CPAs conference in New York "Turning back to the roadmap will be an important priority for us this fall."

The roadmap would have U.S. companies adopting IFRS and filing financial results under IFRS by 2014, with the option for early adoption.

Kroeker said that in the 200 or so comment letters the SEC has received on the proposal, it was "resoundingly clear" that people agree there should be a single set of global high-quality accounting standards.

The comment letters identified, major differences in how different groups wanted to accomplish the goal of one standard.

Kroeker said the SEC staff, as "an important next step," would work on how to put into place various milestones to reach that goal.

Kroeker noted tha t convergence efforts to conform both sets of rules have been going on over the past few years. Recently the IASB and the FASB have accelerated certain convergence projects.

Kroeker implored standard-setters to avoid "a race to the bottom," where in a rush to converge the rules, accounting standard setters are urged to adopt the least controversial version of the rules, rather than the one that would best represent economic reality.

Kroeker said "A race to the bottom is an absolute concern I have," . "If we engage in a race to the bottom ultimately there will be no winner in that race."