The SEC proposed a roadmap in August to manage the widespread migration to international accounting rules by 2014.

A set of globally understood accounting rules is expected to help cut companies’ cost of capital and better enable crossborder investment. Countries without strong accounting frameworks are expected to raise the quality of reporting which, in turn, will help inward investment.

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More than 100 countries use, or are adopting, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), including all 27 EU members as well as China, Japan, Canada and India. The US GAAP accounting system is the last significant standard to be switched to IFRS.

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