Accounting Standards Board

Accounting Standards Board
      The United States Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are two organizations focused on the standardization of accounting practices in the United States and internationally. Both boards offer insight and review into accounting practices and principles used in today’s financial environment, but they also differ in many ways leading to confusion or redundancy throughout industries. Since 2002, the FASB and the IASB have been working together toward the convergence of global accounting standards but have received pressure from international groups since the conception of the IASB in the early 1970s (FASB, n.d). According to the FASB - FASB (n.d). “Today, the path toward that goal is the collaborative efforts of the FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to both improve United States generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and eliminate the differences between them.” Even though the FASB and IASB may present the criteria for specific accounting applications, they both take a different approach, which sometimes results in overlap or inconsistencies. Each standards board has its own principles used in its issued pronouncements. The FASB issues its standards and interpretations through the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) whereas the IASBs pronouncements are issued through IFRS. According to Deloitte - IAS Plus (2010) “IFRS refers to the entire body of IASB pronouncements, including standards and interpretations approved by the IASB and IAS.”
      The Security and Exchange Committee (SEC), regulatory body of the United States, overseeing the financial activity of United States corporations want to see a convergence of the two boards. The SEC, which relies on standards of the FASB for accurately represented financial statements of corporations that it regulates has issued a...