SEC Chief Accountant says SEC will Clarify IFRS Roadmap by end of Fall

Last Friday, October 30, SEC Chief Accountant James Kroeker announced that the SEC remains committed to its IFRS road map.

Kroeker said he does not know the exact date the SEC will finalize its plan some time this fall. The information was provided as an answer to a question following Kroeker’s speech at an AICPA/International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation conference in New York.

The road map provides seven milestones and a tentative timeline. The timeline depends on resolution of several issues around the milestones.

According to Kroeker, comment letters have shown that most stakeholders support adoption of IFRS but that there are major concerns around convergence with U.S. GAAP.

Under the road map proposal, the SEC would decide in 2011 whether to require the use of IFRS. The 2011 decision point aligns with the G20 calls for accounting standard setters “to achieve a single set of high quality, global accounting standards within the context of their independent standard setting process, and complete their convergence project by June 2011.”

Key accounting issues to be resolved include joint projects on financial instruments, financial statement presentation, leases, liabilities and equity distinctions and revenue recognition, consolidations, derecognition and post-employment benefits.

Kroeker prioritizes the list with his top three being financial instruments, revenue recognition and consolidation.

About financial instruments/fair value accounting, Kroeker also said “I believe it would be a serious mistake to take our focus off of investor needs for unbiased, transparent information in order to design what some have suggested are accounting standards that attempt to rectify the banking crisis.”.

On the debate over fair value vs. historical cost valuation of financial instruments, per Kroeker: “it’s my personal view that it’s time to move beyond the debate over whether just fair value is relevant or cost is relevant. … It’s time to acknowledge that in some cases both sets of information are important and then how to portray that.”

With information from Journal of Accountancy