Following IFRS will be "unsuccessful"

News Article - 09 June 2009
Category: Business

The industry does not know enough about International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to follow them, warned the former chief accountant at the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lynn Turner's comments to Accountancy Age follow a recent suggestion by Robert Herz, chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, that there was a proposal for all US companies to switch to IFRS.

Mr Turner claimed that there are practically no professors in the US with any real knowledge of IFRS and therefore any accurate analysis' of the new procedures would be "limited at best".

"That in and of itself is a sad state of affairs here, but clearly highlights the obstacles that need to be overcome if there is to be convergence on a set of high-quality international standards," he said.

A recent report by Deloitte & Touche in the US claims that if given the option, only one in five senior finance professionals and chief financial offers would choose to follow IFRS over the next three years.

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