A committee headed by MFS Investment Management Chairman Robert Pozen will begin meeting this summer and produce recommendations to the SEC by August 2008, Cox said at a press conference.

Cox said the SEC-sponsored group will focus on reducing complexity in U.S. financial reporting, while an effort promoted by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will examine the business of U.S. accounting, now dominated by the Big Four accounting firms. Still, Cox didn't rule out potential overlap between the two studies and said the SEC will coordinate closely with Treasury Department officials on the committee's work.

Less complex accounting rules, clearer direction for companies on applying them, and better ways to communicate financial results to sophisticated and ordinary investors are the goals of the new committee, according to Cox and Pozen.

"We need clearer accounting standards," said Pozen. He noted that more than 10 percent of U.S. companies restated financial results last year, suggesting that firms aren't finding it easy to comply with current accounting rules. He said such restatements, which are costly to companies and confusing to investors, could be reduced if U.S. accounting rules were simpler to understand and apply.

Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman Robert Herz, who appeared along with Cox and Pozen, agreed that the current U.S. financial reporting system "is overly complex," and welcomed the new push for simplification.

As part of that effort, the group may consider whether firms would be better off providing a range of estimated results, rather than a single number, for certain results. Pozen pointed to pension accounting as a case in point, saying it relies on numerous assumptions and judgments that now get boiled down to individual numbers, when a range of estimates might provide a more accurate picture.

Other changes the group may consider: Encouraging companies to provide results for key performance indicators and to offer forward-looking information. Financial performance summaries, compressed into a few pages, might be helpful for individual investors, provided firms include links to supplemental details that are useful to analysts and sophisticated investors, Pozen added.

Eliminating quarterly earnings reports by U.S. companies probably won't be on the table, according to Pozen, who called such results "very useful." However, he said ending the short-term focus and gaming by corporate managers aimed at quarterly earnings results would be desirable.

A move toward international accounting, and a continuing push to converge U.S. and international accounting rules also will be considered by the group, which will include an observer from the International Accounting Standards Board.

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Pozen defended the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board, saying he thinks it does a good job in setting accounting standards. He said the advisery group will look at what happens when questions arise about how to apply U.S. accounting rules, either at an individual company or across an entire industry.

"Right now, it's a little helter-skelter," said Pozen, suggesting companies and investors would benefit from clearer guidance on accounting matters - a task now left to the SEC.

Selection of the advisery committee's members will be left to the SEC, and the group's first meeting, in Washington, could come as early as August. Pozen said the advisery group, which will include investors and accounting professionals, likely will meet publicly 10 to 12 times over the next year before finalizing its recommendations.