This exposure draft is the first product of the IASB’s Improvements project, which aims to raise the quality and consistency of financial reporting by drawing on best practice from around the world, and removing options in international standards.

In an interview with SmartPros' FMN Online this month, Robert Herz, recently selected to the IASB, alluded to the release of "a large exposure draft with a number of proposed improvements in about half of the existing standards."

The 12 changes proposed Wednesday include stricter reporting of special purpose companies and other measures introduced after the Enron scandal highlighted accounting deficiencies.

"The publication of this exposure draft marks the beginning of our effort to improve existing standards, and the next part will follow soon with the publication of proposals to revise the two standards on financial instruments," said IASB Chairman Sir David Tweedie.

Members of the IASB have the responsibility for developing and implementing international accounting standards. As opposed to its predecessor, which served as the primary global accounting standards-setting body since 1973, the IASB is composed of full-time standards setters and is linked directly with national standards setters.

The objective of the IASB to create globally accepted accounting standards largely focuses on the debate over rules-based standards -- adopted by the U.S. -- or principles-based standards -- adopted by the IASB.

"We recognize that we have a big task ahead of us," Herz told SmartPros earlier this month. "I think ... it's going to become increasingly more important for the two sets of standards -- international standards and U.S. GAAP -- to converge."

From May 25 the complete text of the exposure draft will be freely available on the IASB’s Web site. Comments are invited by September 16, 2002.

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