Mapping the future for US firms and IFRS

In a February 2008 Speech to the European-American Business Council, US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said that “Last year, the Commission voted unanimously to permit European and other non-U.S. issuers to prepare their SEC financial statements using International Financial Reporting Standards, without the need to keep a second set of books under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. … This year, the Commission will consider how we will map the future for U.S. firms and International Financial Reporting Standards. But one thing is certain: the expanded use of a single, high-quality accounting standard will eventually empower investors to make better informed investment decisions by giving them information that is more easily comparable.”