Seventy percent of CFOs and other finance professionals support approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s roadmap for adopting International Financial Reporting Standards, according to a new survey by Deloitte.

D.J. Gannon

Nearly 20 percent of the more than 150 finance professionals surveyed by Deloitte indicated they want the roadmap to be approved “as is” by the SEC. Another 51 percent said they believe the SEC should approve the proposed roadmap, but consider pushing back the mandatory deadline by a year.

The survey responses come on the heels of recent public statements by the SEC’s new chief accountant, James Kroeker, and by leaders at the recently concluded G-20 meeting on the importance of having a single set of global accounting standards.

“Clearly, these announcements have energized discussion on the future of IFRS in the U.S.,” said Deloitte & Touche partner D.J. Gannon, national leader of Deloitte’s IFRS Center of Excellence, in a statement. “The movement towards a single set of global accounting standards is on the mind of U.S. company executives, who must increasingly evaluate and assess their organization's preparedness for IFRS adoption.”

Forty-five percent of the survey respondents said their companies have put their IFRS assessment plans on hold due to the ongoing delays with the IFRS roadmap. Twenty percent of the respondents indicated that the economy also factored into their companies’ inactivity, with 20 percent saying that their IFRS efforts were on hold due to economic challenges or a lack of internal support and resources. However, 26 percent said they have not delayed their plans and are on track with their IFRS planning efforts.

Convergence has been one of the main drivers behind IFRS activity. Increased pressure is expected, especially with the latest call by the G-20 for international accounting bodies to redouble their efforts to achieve a single set of global accounting standards by June 2011.

Deloitte found that many companies are taking a broader approach to assessing the impact of IFRS, looking at not just technical accounting differences, but also at the tax, technology and organizational implications. Respondents indicated that their assessments have included the accounting (78 percent), tax (66 percent), technology/systems (63 percent), organizational (52 percent) and statutory (46 percent) implications.