The Securities and Exchange Commission will hold a roundtable discussion next month concerning a plan to eventually allow companies based outside the United States to file financial results in the country using international accounting standards.Slated for March 6 in Washington, senior SEC staff members from the Office of the Chief Accountant, the Division of Corporation Finance and the Office of International Affairs will all participate. The roundtable will be open to the public and will focus on the effect such a change would have on U.S. companies and investors, as well as on U.S. capital raising and the capital markets.
First described in April 2005 by former chief accountant Donald Nicolaisen, the International Financial Reporting Standards-focused roadmap was reaffirmed by Chairman Christopher Cox in February 2006. Foreign private issuers are filing statements in the United States using the IFRS, but they must reconcile the results with U.S. GAAP.
In a statement, Cox noted that nearly 100 countries have a policy of convergence with IFRS, including the European Union where IFRS reporting has been mandatory since 2005.
