PCAOB member slams stateside IFRS plans

A senior US accounting oversight board member has dealt an unexpected blow to plans to introduce international accounting rules, saying it could set American markets back by 'light years'.

Charles Niemeier, an influential member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, said the switch to IFRS by 2014 could squander comparability among US financial statements and impede the ability of the regulators and auditors to do their jobs.

'IFRS has the potential to de-link us from our regulatory model,' Niemeier told a delegation at the New York State Society of CPAs conference.

Niemeier's term with the PCAOB ends next month but he will remain until his replacement is appointed.

He said that Sarbanes-Oxley had gone a long way toward improving the quality of US markets and that a move to IFRS would leave US with rules which are more difficult to enforce, Reuters reported.

Niemeier said it was a myth that US GAAP was too broken to be fixed and that priciples-based IFRS would be better.

'IFRS is not more principles-based, it's just younger,' he said, adding that US GAAP also started as a set of principles.

He noted that tested US GAAP had left the US with rules which are predictable and consistent, and should be prized due to the unique nature of US markets.

'No one else has litigation like us. What makes sense overseas may not make sense for us,' he said.

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