Global convergence of IFRSs
The goal of the IASC Foundation and the IASB is to develop, in the public interest, a single set of high-quality global accounting standards. In pursuit of this goal, the IASB works in close cooperation with stakeholders around the world, including investors, national standard-setters, regulators, auditors, academics, and others who have an interest in the development of high-quality global standards.
Progress toward this goal has been steady. Since 2001 more than 100 countries have required or permitted the use of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), while the remaining major economies have established timelines for convergence with, or adoption of, IFRSs.
In 2006, the IASB and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) agreed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that described a programme to achieve improvements in accounting standards, and substantial convergence between IFRSs and US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The MoU was updated in 2008, and in November 2009 the two boards issued a further statement outlining steps for completing their convergence work by 2011.
In 2008, the IASB and the Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ) published a MoU, known as the Tokyo Agreement, which described work to achieve substantial convergence between IFRSs and Japanese GAAP by June 2011. In 2009 the Japanese Business Accounting Council (BAC), a key advisory body to the Commissioner of the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA), approved a roadmap for the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) in Japan.
Most recently, at their September 2009 meeting in Pittsburgh, US, the Group of 20 Leaders (G20) reaffirmed their commitment to global convergence in accounting standards, calling on ‘international accounting bodies to redouble their efforts to achieve a single set of high-quality, global accounting standards within the context of their independent standard-setting process, and complete their convergence project by June 2011’.