The road to IFRS/US GAAP convergence

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The IASB and the FASB recently announced that they are slowing the pace on their convergence activity. They received feedback from constituents, companies in particular, that based on their current schedule (potentially issuing up to 11 new exposure drafts and standards over the next 12 months!) companies just didn't have the band width to provide high quality comments and analysis on the proposals. Some of the projects are contemplating huge changes (financial statement presentation, revenue recognition, leasing, etc.). The SEC has asked that the Boards focus first on financial instruments (both boards have issued EDs on this!) and leasing. For its part, the SEC has indicated that even with the slower pace of convergence, they still intend on making a decision on a potential final roadmap here in the US in 2011.

I think the FASB and the IASB made the right decision by slowing down the pace a bit - but based on where the boards currently are with the financial instruments project (more "diverged" than "converged"), I remain skeptical that we can ever be fully converged with 2 separate boards debating the issues. Not only is it inefficient.