Brussels, 28/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - The two bodies responsible for establishing international accounting standards, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and its American counterpart, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), signed a protocol of agreement on 27 February aimed at convergence between the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) used in the EU and the American accounting standards (US GAAP). The aim is to abolish, by 2008, the obligation whereby companies applying IFRS standards and quoted on the US stock exchange have to comply with American accounting standards. Some 150 companies are said to be currently concerned.
The IASB and FASB will be collaborating on subjects such as the “fair value option”, used to such an extent that it had delayed adoption of IAS 39 - Financial Instruments: accounting and evaluation (see EUROPE 9069). The Commission announces that it will be organising a round table on coherent application of standards with the involvement of financial actors. In April 2005, it had established with the American traders' commission a roadmap towards mutual recognition of IFRS and US GAAP standards (see EUROPE 8934).