Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The push to move U.S. companies to international accounting standards is a myth-laden ?

CFO.com in its September 11, 2008 Today in Finance article titled "Regulator Rips into Global Accounting Plan" said that 'Recent effort to move the United States toward adoption of international accounting standards is a politically motivated effort that will hurt the standing of the United States in the World's capital markets, a prominent accounting regulator said today'

Further, it wrote the statement of a member and former acting chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, Charles Niemeier who said that 'A precipitous move away from U.S Generally Accepted Accounting Principles will undermine the U.S. regulatory system, and thereby "put in jeopardy the thing that gives the U.S. a competitive advantage'

Niemeier also said it is a myth that IFRS is based more on principles than the rules-heavy U.S GAAP.

"IFRS in not more principles-based, it's just younger," said Niemeier, repeating a charge that he has made in the past.

GAAP, he said, also started with principles. However, he said, that changed after U.S. v.Simon, a 1969 court decision that found that presenting financial information in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles may not be a sufficient defense against charges of violating the antifraud provision of U.S. securities laws.

That case, he said, was a "shock to the system," and spurred a large number of the rules that exist in GAAP today, which were demanded by companies and auditor seeking a level of predictability and consistency.

Read the rest of this article in here :  Regulator Rips into Global Accounting Plan (CFO.com), and also another related article in her : Regulator pans U.S. move toward IFRS accounting