From the Sage MAS Team

[#1]

Courtesy of a CFO.com article posted yesterday comes word that incoming SEC Chairperson Mary Schapiro is likely to slow momentum for international accounting standards and speeding the requirement for small companies' Sarbox compliance.

To illustrate, she plans to require that small publicly traded companies comply with the auditor-attestation requirement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act — which they've been able to avoid since the law was passed nearly seven years ago.

Back on the IFRS front and according to the CFO.com article:
Under the former SEC Chair, Christopher Cox, both small and large public companies would have likely had to quickly get up to speed on a new set of accounting rules. Last year, before the financial crisis exploded fully, Cox had promoted a timeline for all companies to adopt international financial reporting standards by 2016. The approval of such a roadmap would put the U.S. in line with more than 100 countries that have made similar requirements of their listed businesses.

However, the publicity surrounding the plan has fizzled in recent months, as the SEC went into crisis mode after the collapses of the largest U.S. investment banks, and as Cox neared the end of his tenure. He left the SEC last Tuesday without any public fanfare. Democrat commissioner Elisse Walter has been designated as acting chair.

In between the release of the proposed IFRS roadmap — which is open for public comment through Feb. 19 — the International Accounting Standards Board's integrity as a rule-maker has been seriously questioned. In the fall, the board caved to pressure by banks and country leaders to change a provision to one of its rules, making a fair-value standard more like U.S. GAAP. The action made IASB chairman contemplate resigning and put a dent in the SEC roadmap's progress.