POLICY GROUP OFFERS GUIDE TO PROPOSED FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS

Posted September 8, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Center for Audit Quality (CAQ), an autonomous public policy organization, has developed a Guide to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), as its contribution to current efforts to set high-quality global accounting standards.

“The purpose of the Guide is to provide investors, policymakers and other capital market stakeholders a timely, accessible and objective introduction to the current debate over a single set of high quality global accounting standards,” says Cindy Fornelli, Executive Director, CAQ.

Last November, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a roadmap outlining key activities that need to be completed prior to US adoption of IFRS. The Commission will evaluate progress against these milestones in 2011. At that time, it will decide whether to require mandatory use of IFRS beginning in 2014.

The CAQ developed the Guide to IFRS in recognition of this timeline and the critical decisions that must be made regarding the use of global accounting standards in the United States. Although the CAQ’s April 9 comment letter to the SEC expressed the belief that investors would benefit if issuers around the world prepared financial statements using a single set of high-quality accounting standards, Fornelli acknowledged that many stakeholders may have questions about the potential impact of adoption of IFRS.

“In the spirit of educating capital market stakeholders, we developed the Guide to provide interested parties with a balanced overview to help facilitate an informed discussion,” she says.

The Guide’s development is the latest example of the CAQ’s dedication to enhancing investor confidence and public trust in the global capital markets, according to Fornelli. “Those who access the publication will find that it presents the challenges and opportunities of IFRS, but allows readers to reach their own conclusions on this important issue,” she says.

The Guide may be accessed at http://www.thecaq.org/publications/GuidetoIFRS.pdf.