AICPA announces Web site on international financial reporting standards.

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Cornerstone of New Initiative to Help Members Prepare as U.S. Moves toward Adoption

As the start of a major new initiative to educate financial statement preparers and users, auditors and accounting educators about International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the AICPA launched www.ifrs.com on May 15. Acceptance of a single set of high-quality accounting standards for worldwide use by public companies has been gaining momentum around the globe over the past few years.

Outside of the U.S., more than 12,000 public companies in nearly 100 countries have adopted the use of IFRS. In 2005, the European Union began requiting companies in its member states whose securities are listed on an EU-regulated stock exchange to prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with IFRS. In addition, Australia, New Zealand and Israel have essentially adopted IFRS as their national standards. Canada plans to require IFRS for publicly accountable entities in 2011. In addition, the Accounting Standards Board of Japan and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) plan convergence by 2011.

Public companies in the U.S. are now beginning to grapple with the transition to IFRS, but private companies may also be driven in that direction by market forces. For CPAs, the time has come to prepare for the changes ahead as the Securities and Exchange Commission has taken steps toward adoption of IFRS.

The growing acceptance of IFRS as a basis for U.S. financial reporting could represent a fundamental change for the nation's accounting profession, comparable to the enactment of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that created the SEC. In Feb. 2006, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox reaffirmed the Commission's commitment to a "roadmap" toward one set of high quality, globally accepted accounting standards. In Nov. 2007, the SEC voted to accept from foreign fliers in the U.S. financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS, as issued by the IASB, without reconciliation to U.S. GAAP. Later this year, the SEC staff will formally propose to the Commission an updated roadmap that lays out a schedule, and appropriate milestones on which the schedule will be conditioned, for continuing the progress that the U.S. is making in moving to accept IFRS in this country. In anticipation of this action, the AICPA governing Council at its May meeting voted to recognize the IASB as an...