By Dr. Yvonne Hinson
IFRS will most likely come to the U.S. in some form but the timeline is still unknown. The differences between IFRS and GAAP are something that educators need to be addressing now as they send students out into a global marketplace.
In a move that has been pushed for by companies like Citigroup and Wells Fargo, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has voted to relax fair-value accounting standards. The changes to mark-to-market standards are aimed helping the struggling banking industry.
Currently FASB is looking at ways in which the accounting process can be changed in order to address investor complaints, and is planning huge changes for financial statements.
The previous autonomy enjoyed by the IASB has come into question, and some of that autonomy has now been removed with the addition of an extra layer of governance. A new oversight board was established recently that will review the IASB and its trustees.
