Under the SEC's current rules, foreign private issuers are required to reconcile to U.S. GAAP the financial statements that they file with the SEC if their financial statements are prepared using any basis of accounting other than U.S. GAAP.

The SEC voted unanimously on June 20 to issue the proposal for public comment (PDF). The comment period extends for 75 days after the proposal is published in the Federal Register.

The SEC also published a report noting some general observations about the application of International Financial Reporting Standards based on staff reviews of annual reports from more than 100 foreign private issuers containing financial statements prepared for the first time using IFRS.

And the agency has launched a new Web page that consolidates SEC staff correspondence on those completed filing reviews as well as company responses to the comment letters.

The proposed amendments would: (1) apply to foreign private issuers that file financial statements that comply with the English language version of IFRS as published by the IASB, and (2) allow those issuers to file those financial statements in their annual filings and registration statements without reconciliation to U.S. GAAP.