In addition, FASB would work toward convergence of existing U.S. standards not included in the convergence project to IFRS. This, according to Beswick, would ensure that existing guidance was appropriate for U.S. companies on a standard to- standard basis; when the IASB would issue new standards, FASB would decide whether to adopt them.
As described in a May 2011 SEC staff paper, Work Plan for the Consideration of Incorporating International Financial Reporting Standards into the Financial
Reporting System for U.S. issuers:
Exploring a Possible Method of …show more content…
First, the SEC and IASB would target the completion of their joint Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) projects in 2011; second, FASB would assess the IASB’s ongoing and anticipated standards-setting projects, while retaining U.S. GAAP until their completion; and third, FASB would assess “static” IFRS (those not included in the MOU projects and not on the IASB agenda) and execute a transition plan for their incorporation into U.S. GAAP. This strategy would have the advantage of avoiding what the SEC has referred to as the “big bang” approach, under which U.S. issuers would have to absorb the entire body of international standards all at once. It also would retain U.S. GAAP as the statutory basis of financial reporting and place a moratorium on any new standards-setting projects by