FT: IASB hits out at SEC stance on rules

15 July 2012

The chairman of the IASB's oversight body has rebuked the US SEC over its apparent loss of enthusiasm for global accounting rules.

However, SEC staff issued a non-committal paper on the subject on Friday that gave no clue as to when an already-delayed decision on possible IFRS incorporation would be taken by the US markets regulator.

The FASB, which sets US GAAP, had been working with the IASB for a decade to narrow the differences between the two systems in order to facilitate such a move. However, they have not been able to reach a common position on some key issues. The SEC, meanwhile, was supposed to make a decision in IFRS incorporation in 2011.

Its failure to meet that deadline has prompted speculation that it will not make a decision until 2013 at the earliest, reflecting the difficulty of making such a politically sensitive move in an election year, amid fragile economic conditions.

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