US firms should not be able to choose which financial reporting system they wish to operate, a leading industry figure has said.
Robert Herz, chairman of the
Financial Accounting Standards Board, claimed that he does not believe in a situation where two separate forms of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are used.
Rather, firms should adopt International Financial Reporting Standards and such documentation should be handled in an "orderly way", Financial Week reports him as saying.
Mr Herz made the comments at the Financial Executive Institute conference that took place in New York, stating that the aim of creating standardisation would become more difficult if companies were allowed "unfettered choice" of reporting standards.
Despite this, the Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced that the work of creating data tags to enable the computerisation of US GAAP had finally been completed, with the possibility of enforced electronic reporting next year.
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