The move towards global standards

The goal of the IFRS Foundation and the IASB is to develop, in the public interest, a single set of high-quality, understandable, enforceable and globally accepted financial reporting standards based upon clearly articulated principles.

In pursuit of this goal, the IASB works in close cooperation with stakeholders around the world, including investors, national standard-setters, regulators, auditors, academics, and others who have an interest in the development of high-quality global standards.

Progress toward this goal has been steady. All major economies have established time lines to converge with or adopt IFRSs in the near future. The international convergence efforts of the organisation are also supported by the Group of 20 Leaders (G20) who, at their September 2009 meeting in Pittsburgh, US, called on international accounting bodies to redouble their efforts to achieve this objective within the context of their independent standard-setting process. In particular, they asked the IASB and the US FASB to complete their convergence project by June 2011.

Country	Status for listed companies as of April 2010
Argentina	Required for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2011
Australia	Required for all private sector reporting entities and as the basis for public sector reporting since 2005
Brazil	Required for consolidated financial statements of banks and listed companies from 31 December 2010 and for individual company accounts progressively since January 2008
Canada	Required from 1 January 2011 for all listed entities and permitted for private sector entities including not-for-profit organisations
China	Substantially converged national standards
European Union	All member states of the EU are required to use IFRSs as adopted by the EU for listed companies since 2005
France	Required via EU adoption and implementation process since 2005
Germany	Required via EU adoption and implementation process since 2005
India	India is converging with IFRSs at a date to be confirmed.
Indonesia	Convergence process ongoing; a decision about a target date for full compliance with IFRSs is expected to be made in 2012
Italy	Required via EU adoption and implementation process since 2005
Japan	Permitted from 2010 for a number of international companies; decision about mandatory adoption by 2016 expected around 2012
Mexico	Required from 2012
Republic of Korea	Required from 2011
Russia	Required for banking institutions and some other securities issuers; permitted for other companies
Saudi Arabia	Not permitted for listed companies
South Africa	Required for listed entities since 2005
Turkey	Required for listed entities since 2008
United Kingdom	Required via EU adoption and implementation process since 2005
United States	Allowed for foreign issuers in the US since 2007; target date for substantial convergence with IFRSs is 2011 and decision about possible adoption for US companies expected in 2011.