Only 20% of US CFOs willing to adopt IFRS
A Deloitte survey shows only about 20% of USA’s CFOs would consider adopting IFRS if given a choice by SEC
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’