Iasb: mudanças - parte 2

Recentemente postei sobre as mudanças no Iasb (aqui).

O seguinte texto do Financial Times (Global accountancy regulators plan supervision body for IASB, de Jennifer Hughes, 8/11/2007, Asia Ed1, Page 15) não ajuda muito a esclarecer as razões do comunicado:

The long-held ambition of creating a single set of global accounting rules moved a step closer to reality yesterday with proposals designed to improve supervision of the board that sets international standards.

Leading regulators are supporting plans that centre on creating a supervisory group to oversee the work of the International Accounting Standards Board, with representatives from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the European Commission and the Japanese Financial Services Authority.

The aim is to make IASB more independent and accountable to those who oversee the capital markets.

As the use of international financial reporting standards has grown, so have concerns about the complex governance of IASB, which is overseen by a foundation. This has meant a private-sector group has been setting public-interest accounting "law" in a growing number of jurisdictions.

International financial reporting standards issued by IASB are used or being adopted in more than 100 countries including the Group of Seven, except the US, and emerging economies such as China and India.

IASB's lack of accountability has led some national regulators to issue their own guidance and interpretations of IFRS - a path that risks disrupting the move to convergence by creating regional versions of standards.

In a joint statement yesterday, regulators, including Charlie McCreevy, the European Commissioner, and Christopher Cox, chairman of the SEC, said: "IFRS are becoming more widely used throughout the world."

They went on: "We have a common interest of ensuring continuing user confidence in the institutions responsible for the development."

The regulators said it was a "natural step" to involve the governmental bodies in scrutinising the standard setter.

The governance improvements would remove one roadblock to the US eventually switching to IFRS - a move looking increasingly likely.

Currently, the SEC is considering whether to drop its requirement for foreign filers to reconcile their accounts to US accounting rules if they already file in IFRS. IASB and FASB, its US counterpart, are also working on a long-term convergence project.