Former European Central Bank executive-board member Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa will become chairman of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation.
Padoa-Schioppa was considered a front-runner for Bank of Italy governor after Antonio Fazio resigned this week, but it is unlikely he will hold the top job at the bank along with the accounting-standards position. The International Accounting Standards Board also reappointed Sir David Tweedie as chairman, ensuring continuity in the IASB's effort to achieve widely applicable international accounting standards. Tweedie has spearheaded that effort, which is seen as being at a crucial point of development with a target date for the removal of the U.S. GAAP reconciliation by no later than 2009.
Padoa-Schioppa will succeed Paul Volcker, former head of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Volcker was the first chairman of the trustees, and will continue to serve as chairman of the Trustee Appointments Advisory Group.
"More than ever there is a compelling need to accept international accounting standards as the basis of financial reporting for the world's rapidly integrating capital markets," said Padoa-Schioppa, in a statement. "There is more work to be done if the world's capital markets are to reap the full benefits of international standards, and I am dedicated to achieving that goal."
Padoa-Schioppa is senior fellow of the Institute of International Affairs in Rome and president of Notre Europe in Paris. He was a member of the executive board of the European Central Bank from 1998 until May 2005 and has a long history in both the banking world as well as many years of service on various European and international committees.
