Sir David Tweedie had some interesting remarks after urging the FASB to converge to IFRS.
"Do you understand Chinese accounting? Do you understand Indian accounting? The answer is no. But you will when they use IFRS, and you will invest when you know where the answers are," Tweedie added.
In the United States, the IASB has held talks with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) for years to bring international accounting rules close together.
"Ultimately, we have to speak for the international community. If we disagree with FASB, we have to do what we think is right," Tweedie said. "We can't converge at all costs. At present, they wish a much (less rigid concept of) fair value than we believe the rest of the world would accept or even think is appropriate."
At the same time, he said he expects the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will produce a statement in the next few weeks saying what the United States will do about moving toward international accounting standards. "I think they will confirm they will make a decision next year."
"We have all the major economies signing up for IFRS except the United States... I think if they decide they don't want to use the standards, there will be a resistance in the world. I don't think the United States wants to be isolated," he said.
