Executives from BDO Seidman, Deloitte & Touche and PricewaterhouseCoopers will participate in two roundtable discussions in Washington DC, starting later today, held by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) on the use of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by US and foreign companies.

Last month SEC dropped the rule requiring offshore companies listed in the US to reconcile their accounting with US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) in an effort to adopt a single set of global accounting standards.

The change has been criticised as premature by several US lawmakers and investor advocates, who argue it will result in less information available to investors.

The first roundtable will discuss the impact of allowing foreign companies to use IFRS while denying US companies the same choice. The second roundtable tomorrow will focus on practical issues surrounding the use of IFRS by US companies.

Further reading:

Ex-SEC chief: Disclose more but leave accounting rules alone

SEC scraps IFRS-GAAP reconciliation rule