Breakthrough on global accounting standards

The 25th Annual Conference of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), held in Sydney in mid-May, succeeded where last year’s Lisbon conference failed: it recommended that IOSCO members, which include the great majority of national securities regulators, permit the use of 30 IASC standards - dubbed the “30 IASC 2000 standards” —covering cross-border listings and offerings by multinationals. The negotiations behind the scenes have been delicate and difficult, but the historic breakthrough — described by HowardDavies as a “big win” in the tortuous ongoing process of setting global accounting rules - will help to allay fears in some countries that the US is attempting to impose their own national standards as the de facto global norm.