Wednesday, May 18, 2011

APPR Examines 2011 in Seidman Interview, Other Stories

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The new year dawns with fewer than six months remaining until the FASB and the IASB face their deadline for substantially converging several of their standards, a key criterion for the SEC to use in determining if international financial reporting standards should be used in the United States. Accounting Policy and Practice Report takes a look at what confronts the profession in 2011.

New FASB Chairman Leslie Seidman—the first-ever woman to hold that post—discusses convergence and other challenges and opportunities facing the board this year in an interview with BNA correspondent Steve Burkholder. She describes the tricky issue of how to agree with the IASB on measuring financial instruments, perhaps the thorniest problem confronting the boards.

Also, U.S. accounting and regulatory officials appear to be taking a step back from any urgency of meeting the June 30 convergence deadline. Seidman says the board is not backing away from that date, but emphasized that meeting it “is subject” to the feedback the boards receive from their constituents and the quality of the standards they are developing.

Accounting professionals, too, expect a slower paced approach at convergence in the interests of ensuring accounting standards quality. One professional said the 2011 deadline “seems increasingly in doubt” as the standards setters confront the complexity of their tasks and the difficulty of bridging their differences.

To access these stories in the Accounting Policy & Practice Report, click here if you are a current subscriber. Not a subscriber? Click here to take a 15-day Free Trial to the Accounting Policy & Practice Report for full access to these and other stories.

--Steven Marcy

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