IFRS referring to International Financial Reporting Standards is a set of standards of international accounting that states the manner of reporting particular forms of transactions as well as other events in financial statements. The reasons for the establishment of IFRS were to have a universal accounting language so that there could be an understanding of business and accounts from one company to the other and from one country to another. SEC, on the other hand, referring to Security and Exchanges Commission is an agency of United States federal government that plays the primary responsibility of enforcing laws of federal securities, proposing safety rules, regulation of industry securities and also other activities like electronic securities markets of the United States.
Present status of IFRS under SEC perspective
The current status of IFRS under the SEC perspective is that IFRS has high impact and importance. It is also gaining a lot of acceptance by a majority of the accounting firms as the central set of standards of accounting that is suitable for making financial reporting concerning cross-border offerings ( Epstein, 2004) . The Security and Exchanges Commission of the United States was in favor of a set of central accounting standards that would be suitable for making financial reporting over the cross-border offerings. The Security and Exchanges Commission supported the efforts concerning Financial Accounting Standards Board and also IASB in developing a universal set of global standards of high quality.
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In the year 2008, there was a proposal by the Commission of adopting a roadmap for laying out a schedule and the corrective milestones for the continuing progress towards accepting IFRS in the United States. The SEC revisited the roadmap in the year 2010, and its staff released an outlining statement indicating a work plan for evaluating the impacts of IFRS on US system of financial reporting. In this revisit, the SEC switched from the Generally Accepted Accounting principles to IFRS and this accounting system was found to have a real impact on the ever increasing companies of the United States both public and private. After the adoption of IFRS, responders also indicated a widespread support towards the goal of having the single set of high quality and universally accepted standards of accounting.
As at present, there is the use of IFRS by public enterprises in one hundred and twenty jurisdictions that includes ninety of these jurisdictions making a requirement for the whole of domestic listed companies to adopt IFRS. Concerning the private industries, there are unlisted companies in 93 jurisdictions that make use of IFRS ( In Bensadon, 2016) . Among these jurisdictions, 27 of them have a requirement of-of all domestic enterprises to adopt IFRS. Furthermore, the other remaining and significant economies, as well as the capital markets that are outside the United States, have made a declaration of the date of explicitly converting to the financial reporting standards of IFRS shortly.
The present status of convergence efforts from FASB perspective
Under the point of view of FASB, the current state of convergence is reaffirming commitment in achieving comparability, consistency, and efficiencies in the Global Capital Markets. As of October 2002, there was an announcement by the FASB and the International Accounting Standards Boards, IASB of the issuance of a memorandum of understanding that would mark an important step towards the formalization of their commitment in the convergence of US and the International Accounting Standards. The FASB undertook the major initiatives of furthering the goal of converging the US GAAP and the International Financial Reporting Standards. The major initiatives included conduction of joint projects with IASB, the project of short-term convergence, liaison with IASB members on site on FASB offices and also the monitoring of IASB projects by the FASB. The other initiatives included the research project of convergence and the explicit consideration of the potential of convergence in the entire Board agenda decisions.
The other notable present status of convergence under the FASB perspective is that there has been the working together of IASB and US FASB since the year 2002, in an attempt of achieving convergence of standards of IFRS and the United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, GAAP. The attainment of a universal set consisting of high-quality worldwide standards remains the priority of not only IASB but also FASB.
The opinion of US companies adopting or not adopting IFRS
According to the individual thinking, the United States companies must adopt IFRS. There are three primary reasons as to why the enterprises in the United States should adopt IFRS. The reasons are that IFRS makes it easier for comparison, there is an internationally understanding of IFRS and the other reason being that the standard assists the multinational companies in staying up to date and remaining competitive upon globalization of the markets ( Mirza, 2011) . Adopting the IFRS will help the investors, companies and also the public to globally make a comparison of their financial statements with the other firms quickly. Through adoption of IFRS, companies can present their financial statements on a similar basis to its competitors in the foreign markets and thereby compare easily. In case every country possesses its own and different set concerning financial standards, and at the same time the multinational companies are in various nations, there is the difficulty of comparing the manner that every country stands due to the absence of consistency.
Consistency is a major factor in the comparison of statements. In the absence of single global standards, there will be more difficult if not utterly impossible to make the comparison with their competitors because of the extra finances and time factor. On the existence of an international accounting standard in place, there will be allowing of competitors and companies to compare with one another. Moreover, there is the need for the existence of an international language of transparency and disclosure to achieve the goal of pursuing on behalf of the investors that seek the comparable information on finances in making well-informed decisions concerning their investments ( Kimmel, 2008) .
In addition, consistency does not only have the importance of comparison but also for every individual for understanding the financial statements at international levels. IFRS allows for the easy understanding of financial statements. The United States also does not use metric measures like meters and kilometers but instead uses the conventional system like feet and inches. Therefore, the adoption of IFRS will be highly recommendable to adopt. Due to these reasons, there is no doubt that the companies in the United States should adopt IFRS.
References
Epstein, B. J., & Mirza, A. A. (2004). Interpretation and application of international accounting and financial reporting standards. New Jersey: J. Wiley & Sons.
In Bensadon, D., In Praquin, N., Zeff, S. A., & IFRS Foundation,. (2016). IFRS in a global world: International and critical perspectives on accounting.
Kimmel, P. D., Weygandt, J. J., & Kieso, D. E. (2008). Accounting: Tools for business decision making. Chichester: John Wiley.
Mirza, A. A., & Holt, G. J. (2011). Wiley IFRS: Practical implementation guide and workbook. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.
