This guide will discuss the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) to switch from the GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Standards) to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), governed by the London, England based International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), which are used by foreign companies.
The SEC plan is to allow American-based multi-national companies to voluntarily switch to the new standards in 2010. The SEC would then vote on whether to make it mandatory for all US companies to switch the International Financial Reporting Standards beginning in 2014. In the meantime, the SEC has already begun to allow foreign companies to use IFRS when doing business and listing their stocks and bonds in the United States.
