IASB and FASB find advisory group chairs

The International Accounting Standards Board and US Financial Accounting Standards Board have announced two co-chairmen for the high-level advisory group formed to consider financial reporting issues arising from the global economic crisis.

They are Hans Hoogervorst, chairman of the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets, and Harvey Goldschmid, former commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hoogervorst also serves as vice chairman of the technical committee of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions and is a former minister of finance in the Netherlands.

Goldschmid is the Dwight professor of law at Columbia University.

The advisory group will comprise investors, regulators, preparers, auditors and other users of financial statements and will help ensure that financial reporting issues arising from the crisis are considered in an internationally co-ordinated manner.

Further details on the composition of the group and scheduling of meetings will be announced shortly.

It is expected that the group’s work will be completed within four to six months.

Recommendations from the advisory group will be jointly considered by the two boards. The IASB says any decisions to act will be subject to ‘appropriate and robust due process’. It adds that ‘in the interests of transparency’, the group will meet in public session with webcasting facilities available to all interested parties.