International Assignment #1
IASB stands for International Accounting Standards Board; it is the independent board charged with the standard setting of the IFRS. The IASB is important because it develops and publishes the IFRS as well as provides rulings on interpretations of the IFRS. The IASB consist of 15 fulltime multinational members; the current chairman is Hans Hoogervorst from the Netherlands.
IFRS stands for International Financial Reporting Standards and is the organization whose main goal is to “to develop a single set of high quality, understandable, enforceable and globally accepted international financial reporting standards (IFRSs) through its standard-setting body, the IASB”. (IFRS, 2013) Most major economies in Europe, South America and the Middle East use the IFRS as their financial accounting standard with the exception of the United States. The US is still does not accept IFRS for domestic companies.
The IFRS and U.S. GAAP are working towards convergence or compatible financial reporting standards. The current path is “… the collaborative efforts of the FASB and the IASB to both improve U.S. GAAP and IFRS and eliminate the differences between them”. (Board, 2012)
The current status of the FASB/IFRS project for Revenue Recognition is still active and the final accounting standard updates are expected sometime in the second quarter of 2013. The joint project for Leases is also still active and exposure documents are expected sometime in the second quarter of 2013. The Earnings per Share joint project is currently not active. It is expected that discussions will begin again towards the end of 2013
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[ 1 ]. FASB (2012). IASB-FASB Update Report to the Finacial Stability Board Plenay on Accounting Convergence . Web.: FASB. Retrieved from Financial Accounting Standards Boards: http://www.fasb.org/jsp/FASB/Page/SectionPage&cid=1176156245663
IFRS. (2013, Feb). About the IFRS