The IASB inherited its standards from the IASC, a body set up in 1973 that had to take into account all the views of the many countries represented on its board.
But the IASC has so far failed to produce standards that the SEC is willing to endorse.
The point is simply that there is a standard method, so that managers cannot mislead investors by choosing the method for themselves.Let the markets do the talkingIf the merits of Anglo-American accounting are so obvious, why has the IASC not adopted its standards?
It does not help that the IASC is bureaucratic, secretive and political.
To byte the hand that feeds America v the world Financial misstatements I'm modified, buy me Reprints Related items Financial misstatementsJan 15th 1998Officials at the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), America's accounting-rule maker, are privately scathing about the work of the IASC.
The big question is: will the Americans accept them?America, the world's biggest capital market has, so far, eschewed international standards, despite the best efforts of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), a private body supported by the worldwide accountancy profession.
The SEC's chairman, Arthur Levitt, was instrumental in getting the IASC to draw up a set of core standards, a job it has just finished.
Because the IASC could not get everybody to agree, many standards allow different accounting treatments.
Fears are growing that, later this year, America's regulators will veto a plan by the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), which met this week in London, to promote a single worldwide set of standards.
Irin has conducted several interviews with high-level aid officials on the topic of reform and found little evidence of real momentum for change, particularly among IASC members, who have vested interests, mostly financial, in the status quo.
