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U.S. businesses not rushing to get ready for IFRS

IFRS encounters more obstacles on the road to convergence

With legislators and regulators preoccupied with the financial crisis, the transition to IFRS doesn’t seem to be on the minds of most financial executives either. According to a recent survey from Protiviti, an independent risk consulting firm, about half the respondents said their companies haven’t made any preparations to date to adopt IFRS.

Survey responses reflect “the current wait-and-see approach taken by many,” Protiviti said in its survey report in regard to the relatively high number of companies that aren’t yet getting ready for IFRS.

Reports swirled on the Internet that the SEC would be publishing the IFRS roadmap for publication in the near future; however, the SEC press office confirmed that the roadmap is not ready for publication. This fueled speculation that the roadmap is being delayed by the current credit crisis and fair value debate.

The SEC is about two months late in publishing the highly anticipated roadmap in the Federal Register. The IFRS roadmap will not be available until December at the earliest, according to the SEC press office.

Should that be the case, it may be difficult for the roadmap to hold to the original timetable established in August. The timetable includes a 60-day comment period that will inevitably stretch into 2009, leaving critics wondering if it’s possible for the largest companies to opt to use IFRS by year-end.

The appointment of a new SEC chairman also may be an obstacle to the original timetable and overall convergence. The new secretary, along with the new presidential administration, may not share Cox’s vision.

FASB and IASB’s accelerated plan for convergence has a very ambitious completion goal of 2011. FASB and IASB have jointly committed to developing a common set of high-quality standards to improve the quality, consistency, and comparability of financial information for investors and capital markets around the world. Work on this continues as the two boards hold a series of roundtables to identify financial reporting issues highlighted by the global financial crisis, with the first being Nov. 14 in London.