Convergence Failure

In September 2002 the IASB and the FASB agreed to work together, in consultation with other national and regional bodies, to remove the differences between international standards and US GAAP. (Dorata, 2008) However, the convergence of IFRS and FASB is coming to the end. (Golden, 2013)

It has been argued over years that Convergence of financial reporting is possibly one of the most important and controversial topics in accounting and corporate governance across countries, of which I could not wholly agree them. The Issue of the convergence of the National Accounting Standards with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) among policy makers, standard setters, regulators, professional bodies, and companies worldwide has peaked up and widely been discussed lately. (Yu Chen & Zabihollah R 2012)

The IOSCO plan does not cover accounting standards.(66) These standards are important for providing financial statements in a scheme that are prepared in the similar manner as those by issuers from other countries. The development of international accounting standards is the subject of a distinct project by IOSCO, and many accounting professionals who are concomitant with that undertaking are hopeful that a satisfactory solution is within reach.(67) Supposing, however, that an agreement is possible on a core set of financial standards and that they too are embraced by securities regulators as compulsory for foreign issuers, the road to commonality has at least two other impediments.

The five research articles I have chosen to further my research on the convergence between U.S. GAAP and IFRS are The Implication of US GAAP and IFRS Convergence on American Business by Austin Willmore (2015), IFRS adoption by country by PWC (2015), International Financial Reporting Standards and American Generally Accepted Accounting Principles: the Convergence Lessons by Kuzina (2015), The economic impact of IFRS - a financial analysis perspective by Seay (2014), and Accounting for Leases The New Standard by CPA Journal (2016). These articles are related to my topic, where these researchers researched and analyzed the financial statement reporting on convergence of the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and certain accounts when adopting IFRS present a different result in the financial reporting for U.S. reporting companies when U.S. GAAP standards combined with IFRS. Also, these research articles discuss the existence of two systems of standards, U.S. GAAP and IFRS; and the issue and difficulty of the process to fully converge.

The purpose of convergence by the two boards is to create a common set of standards for use by both domestic and foreign entities to create internationally comparable statements. The boards initially met in 2002 for a meeting known as the Norwalk

This research project will inform the reader of the difference between the United States accounting standards and International accounting standards. The United States uses the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to issue financial reporting procedures. The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). There are proposals for the United States to adopt the International standards. Financial reporting procedures are debated about the United States using the Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures (GAAP) or following the global procedures. This

Since 2002, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) have been working toward “convergence” of US General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). They have made significant progress in efforts to converge critical accounting standards such as those dealing with revenue recognition, financial instruments and leases. Once these projects are complete, the "era" of convergence will be at an end. Nevertheless, the benefits for investors of eventually getting to consistently applied, high-quality, globally accepted accounting

The purpose of this paper is to describe what accounting convergence means and assess the likelihood of the convergence being completed and implemented in the next five (5) years. IFRS is the principle based set of standards that establish standards and dictate specific treatments. IFRS has become a global standard for companies when preparing financial statements. IFRS consist of multiple reports stated on the Wikipedia website. The two reports that will be discussed in the paper are IFRS and GAAP. GAAP is an Accounting Standard that provides guidance for financial

The convergence of two accounting systems, the US GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards, is not a new concept. For many years, the primordial idea of convergence started in the late 1950’s in response to post World War II economic integration and related increases in cross-border capital flows. Initially, the term used was “Harmonization until the early 1990’s the politically correct term is “Convergence”.

A joint convergence committee created the members of (FASB) and (IASB). (IASB) is recognized as an independent accounting standard-setting body that is similar to (FASB) that joins (GAAP), and is governed by the (IFRS) foundation. Due to this convergence, (AICPA) believes U.S. adoption of a single set of high-quality, globally accepted accounting standards will benefit U.S. financial markets and public companies by enabling preparation of transparent and comparable financial reports throughout the world, (American Institute of CPAs, 2016). Secondly, (AICPA) is dedicated to supplying the whole accounting profession with information, tools and IFRS.com for instance to assimilate as well as implement a new set of standards. As the (AICPA) supports continual convergence of reliable accounting standards between (IFRS) and (GAAP) the mission of completion between (IASB) and (FASB) is prolonged. (AICPA) will always support funding mechanisms of the body-making

The FASB-IASB convergence project sought to merge U.S. GAAP with IFRS in a way that would combine the best of both standards to make financial reporting easier in a world that grows smaller each day. To say that the project was challenging would be a gross understatement; convergence faced many setbacks that arose out of disagreements about the best way to represent information for a vast set of users. One reason why disagreements arose is because the process for accounting standard-setting is considerably political. When a diverse group of people argues for the interests of massive groups of other very different people, each with their own competing interests, complications are bound to occur. Everyone brings their own issues to the table,

A set of internationally recognized accounting standards facilitates capital flows across borders. Globally accepted standards make financial information readily comparable for its users. Foreign investors are more inclined to put money into a U.S. company if they are familiar with the company’s financial reporting. Conversely, U.S. investors will find it easier and less risky to invest in foreign companies when they know the local accounting standards (Epstein 2009). This will make U.S. companies and capital markets more competitive, since it saves costly reconcilition of different standards. Preparers, investors, auditors, and others will benefit from these cost effieciencies, since a Results of an IFAC Survey among accounting leaders around the world with respect to the importance of convergence to International Financial Reporting Standards for economic growth in their countries:

The Norwalk Agreement, first announced on September of 2002, was a paramount step towards a unified global accounting standard. In this document, both U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Boards (IASB) (the Boards) “each acknowledge their commitments to the development of high quality, compatible accounting standards that could be used for both domestic and cross-border financial reporting.” (MoU Progress Report, 2008) In 2006, and subsequently updated in 2008, the boards agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which detailed the short and long-term

With the number of countries that have switched to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for their financial reporting, as well as the continued efforts made between the IFRS and US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP), it is evident that international convergence is an overall appealing idea for global reporting. With that said, for decades now US GAAP has worked with IFRS to create a universal standard; and while progress has been made to diminish variances between the standards, there are still large, if not unattainable efforts ahead of us. The hype over a proposed uniform set of global accounting standards appears to be stunted by the lost efforts in the convergence project between the US GAAP and IFRS. As the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) moves forward with its standards setting, there must be a reevaluation of the goal for reporting standards and efforts with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

account between the companies being in competition become relevant”. The comparison, as the basic form of economical judgment can be realized only if the accounting system is unique for all the companies involved in the analysis. Also harmonization is absolutely necessary because national standards of financial statements are virtually useless; financial markets in more regulated countries are threatened with a loss of market share; and multinational corporations must prepare multiple reports for different nations they do business in. (Nobes and Parker 1991). In order to accomplish this target the accounting profession developed the solutions like: the American solution GAAP or the European solution (British solution to be read) IAS/IFRS. On the backdrop of getting a single set of international