International accounts rules to be delayed
THE head of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which sets US accounting rules, said yesterday he does not expect FASB to meet a 30 June, 2011 deadline for convergence with international accounting rules, requested by the G20 group of industrial and emerging countries.
The Norwalk, Connecticut-based FASB and the London-based International Accounting Standards Board expect to announce changes to their convergence work plan in the next week or so that would delay the completion date by about six months and allow for greater public comment on the boards’ proposals, FASB chairman Robert Herz said.
“We’ve been working on a revised work plan with the IASB,” Herz said.
Herz said that to issue final standards by June 2011, the boards would have to release about 10 proposals in the next two months and rush through the public comment process.
The G20 set a mid-2011 deadline for creating a single set of high-quality accounting rules, but the US Securities and Exchange Commission said that the deadline should not be met at the cost of lower standards.