Modified Timeline for Convergence of FASB/IASB Major Standards

The IASB and the FASB recently issued a joint statement on their convergence work.

In November 2009 the two Boards reaffirmed their commitment to improving International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and US GAAP and achieving their convergence. In that statement they affirmed June 2011 as the target date for completing the major projects in the 2006 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), as updated in 2008. Then in their March 2010 report they described the progress they had made to date, explained some of the challenges they face in improving and converging their standards in certain areas, and reported changes made to certain project-specific milestone targets.

They also recognized the challenges that arise from seeking effective global stakeholder engagement on a large number of projects. As a result of concerns expressed by various stakeholders about their ability to provide high-quality input on the large number of major Exposure Drafts planned for publication in the second quarter of 2010, the two Boards are now in the process of developing a modified strategy to take account of these concerns. This strategy would:

• Prioritize the major projects in the MoU to permit a sharper focus on issues and projects that will bring about significant improvement and convergence between IFRS and US GAAP.
• Stagger the publication of Exposure Drafts and related consultations to enable the broad-based and effective stakeholder participation in due process.
• Limit to four the number of significant or complex Exposure Drafts issued in any one quarter.
• Issue a separate consultation document seeking stakeholder input about effective dates and transition methods.

The modified strategy retains the target completion date of June 2011 for many of the projects identified by the original MoU. The target completion dates for a few projects have extended into the second half of 2011. To see more of theFASB's activities go to their website, http://www.fasb.org/.

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