Companies remain reluctant to shift to global standards. (Assurance: technical developments, professional issues and engagement changes).

Accounting Today, May, 2003 by Glenn Cheney

LONDON -- Ready or not, here they come: international financial reporting standards. As of 2005, public companies trading in the European Union and Australia will need to present financial reports prepared under IFRS. The big change begins in less than two years, yet most companies, even in Europe, aren't preparing for the change and aren't really even thinking about it.

"The majority of U.S. companies are just waking up to the fact that they'd better be paying attention to [IFRS] because they may ultimately have to accept them," said Marie Braverman, a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers, which issued a survey and report on preparations for the international standards. "The international standards may become U.S. generally accepted accounting standards."...