| September 2002 | The
Financial
Accounting
Standards
Board
(FASB) and the IASB issue a
memorandum of understanding (the Norwalk
Agreement)
wherein
they
“acknowledged
their commitment to high-quality, compatible
accounting
standards that could be used for both domestic and
cross-border
financial reporting.” The memorandum notes that the
Boards have
“pledged to use their best efforts (a) to make their
existing financial
reporting standards fully compatible as soon as is
practicable and (b)
to coordinate their future work programs to ensure
that once achieved,
compatibility is maintained.” |
| February 2006 | The Boards issue A Roadmap for Convergence between IFRSs and US GAAP – 2006 - 2008; Memorandum of Understanding between the FASB and the IASB and reaffirmed their commitment to the convergence of U.S. GAAP and IFRS. |
| September 2008 | The Boards issue an update to their 2006 Memorandum of Understanding. The update reports on the progress the Boards have made since 2006 and establishes a goal of completing their major joint projects by 2011. |
| November 2008 | The
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
(SEC) issues its proposed Roadmap
for
the Potential Use of Financial Statements Prepared
in Accordance
with International Financial Reporting Standards by
U.S. Issuers (the
Roadmap).
The
Roadmap
proposes milestones that the SEC would assess in
2011 in order to determine whether to proceed with
rulemaking to
mandate the use of IFRS by all domestic issuers. |
| November 2009 | The
FASB
and
the
IASB
issue a joint statement, FASB and IASB
Reaffirm Commitment to Memorandum of Understanding,
describing
their plans and milestone targets for achieving the
goal of completing
major joint Memorandum of Understanding projects by
the end of June
2011. (Didn't
happen!) |
| February 2010 | The SEC issues a statement reaffirming support for convergence of accounting standards, but states that more information is needed to allow them to make a well-informed decision on whether to incorporate the use of IFRS, as issued by the IASB, by U.S. issuers in its financial reporting system. The SEC staff pledge to develop and execute a work plan to gather information to evaluate and provide further information to the SEC. |
| December 2011 |
The
SEC’s decision on whether to incorporate
IFRS for U.S. issuers is at least a few
months away. SEC Chief Accountant James
Kroeker said the SEC staff will need at
least a few more months to produce a final
report that would position the commission to
make a determination on IFRS. An
SEC statement in February 2010 had indicated that a
decision could come as early as 2011, Kroeker said,
but that won’t be the case. Speech by Kroeker at the AICPA National
Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments in
Washington.
|