November 1999

FASB Issues Analysis of U.S. and International Standards

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued the second edition of a report that compares U.S. generally accepted accounting principles with international standards published by the International Accounting Standards Committee. The report is an update of a comparison study undertaken by FASB in 1996.

The objectives of the comparison study are to provide information to help assess whether IASC standards would be acceptable for securities listings in the United States, to offer a tool for investors and others to use in comparing U.S. companies with companies that use IASC standards for financial reporting, and to give FASB and the IASC a basis to raise the quality of their standards while narrowing the differences between them.

"FASB is committed to the development of a single set of high-quality accounting standards that could be used both domestically and for cross-border securities filings," FASB Chair Edmund L. Jenkins said. "The demand for those standards is driven by the need for high-quality, internationally comparable information to enable investors to make capital allocation decisions. We hope that by highlighting the differences between U.S. GAAP and international standards, we can help future efforts toward greater international comparability and quality of accounting standards and financial reporting worldwide."

In recent years, the IASC has developed a core set of standards with the hope that they will be acceptable worldwide for companies wishing to raise capital in countries other than their own. IASC substantially completed the standards early in 1999 and submitted them to the International Organization of Securities Commissions--of which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is a member--for consideration for worldwide acceptance in the capital markets.

To order a copy of the report, "The IASC-U.S. Comparison Project: A Report on the Similarities and Differences Between IASC Standards and U.S. GAAP," which is available for $40, call the FASB Order Department at (800) 748-0659 or visit http://www.fasb.org. *