IASC goes into overdrive

In a last-gasp effort to deliver a core package of global standards before the end of 1998, the International Accounting Standards Committee is proposing that a special December meeting be held.

IASC secretary general Sir Bryan Carsberg proposed the extra board meeting last week, as the committee published the approved version of its controversial exposure draft E62: ‘Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement’ on its Internet site.

The financial instruments standard has hampered the IASC’s mission to complete 12 key standards that will give companies a ‘universal passport’ to international stock exchanges. E62 was drafted by IASC staff after its board rejected Sir Bryan’s proposal last year to adopt the US Financial Accounting Standards Board’s version as a shortcut.

Comments on E62 are invited by 30 September, which means the IASC board will not be able to discuss it at its meeting in Niagara Falls, starting on 6 July.

The December special meeting, said Sir Bryan, will put the IASC in good shape to have its core package approved by regulators before 2000.