The AICPA filed a comment letter on the review of the IASC Foundation’s (IASCF) Constitution. While expressing strong support for the objectives of the IASCF and the IASB, the Institute:
Urged the IASCF to continue its efforts to secure
permanent funding for the IASB’s activities. The Institute said the
SEC should use part of the current levy on U.S. public companies for
accounting standard-setting activities as a permanent funding source
for the IASB.
Supported the creation of a monitoring group, as
envisioned by the IASCF, to formalize the link to public authorities.
The Institute expressed support for the SEC having a seat on the
monitoring group and recommends that the IASCF add a bank regulator to
the group. If in the future many countries adopt the IASB’s standard
for private entities, the AICPA believes the IASCF should increase
private entity constituency representation on the monitoring group.
Agreed with the IASCF’s recommendation that a memorandum
of understanding between the monitoring group and IASCF should be
exposed for public comment.
Supported the establishment of operating protocols in a
manner that fully maintains the IASB’s independence, while providing
sufficient oversight so that individual countries don’t have a basis
for “carve-out” exceptions to what the IASB promulgates.
Supported the proposed IASB geographic composition and
the increased board size as reasonable changes.
Supported having a maximum of three part-time members of
the IASB.
Called for the Trustees Appointments Advisory Group
(TAAG) to continue to have an important role to fill even with the
creation of the monitoring group. Primarily, the TAAG will help ensure
that the IASCF has a formalized mechanism to reach out to additional
constituencies to gather “fresh” perspectives when identifying
candidates to serve as IASCF Trustees.
The comment letter is available at www.ifrs.com/pdf/IASB_Comment_Letter.pdf.
