Preliminary results of a newly released survey by Deloitte & Touche in the US show a minority of about 20% of chief financial offers (CFOs) and senior finance professionals would consider adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) if given a choice by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) within the next three years.

The Deloitte & Touche report predicts US companies might have a choice of IFRS or US generally accepted accounting principles by 2010 or 2011. However, the survey results indicate US companies believe their personnel lack sufficient knowledge of IFRS to make the conversion and to maintain IFRS financial statements, both among domestic and non-US operations.

More than half the companies considering IFRS say they lack skilled resources in their US operations, while about one-third feel they lack skilled resources in their non-US operations.

DJ Gannon, a Deloitte & Touche partner, said the results suggested that a number of US companies had an interest in IFRS.

'The movement toward IFRS is being driven largely by the markets,' he said. 'As more companies outside the US report using IFRS, there will likely be increasing pressure on US companies to do the same.'

Further reading:

Protest against scrapping ‘bottom line’ figures

US 'not ready for IFRS transition'