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Accounting Review
审视会计
Score a point for globalization. In a landmark vote on Wednesday August 27th America’s financial-markets watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), paved the way for its companies to switch from America’s Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to international accounting standards. In a field that is, by reputation, notoriously dull, this looks like something to get genuinely excited about.
美国的全球化进程又取得了新的进展。本周三(2008年8月27日），在一项具有里程碑意义的投票中，美国金融市场监管者——证券交易管理委员会为各企业在公认会计准则转换到国际会计准则的过程中铺平了道路。该领域一向以枯燥刻板而为人所知，这样的结果看起来确实很值得高兴。
GAAP was the beancounter’s gold standard for decades, but it is now widely seen as cumbersome. Most other countries have embraced the international rules, known as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The regulators' plan envisages American-based multinationals switching to the standards voluntarily in 2010. The SEC would then vote on whether to require all other companies to do the same, starting in 2014. The commission has already cleared the way for overseas firms to use IFRS when doing business or listing securities in America.
数十年来公认会计标准一直是该领域的黄金准则，然而现在大多数认为该标准尾大不掉，缺乏灵活性。其他很多国家都采用了国际标准——国际财务报告准则。美国监管部门计划让总部位于美国的跨国企业在2010年自愿转换为国际财务报表准则。证券交易管理委员届时将投票决定是否也需要规定其他公司从2014年开始采用国际财务报表准则。证券委员会已经为海外公司在美国营业或是上市时使用国际财务报表准则扫清了道路。
Christopher Cox, the SEC's chairman, hailed the move to an "international language of disclosure, transparency and comparability." Big companies have long been preparing for it with enthusiasm. It will bring each of them one-off costs in the tens of millions, but the savings over time will dwarf the initial outlay. It could also mean greater profits: one study found that the majority of American firms made more under the foreign rules. Investors, too, have reason to rejoice. It will make it easier to compare, say, a French drug company with an American rival. And the compliance costs of duplicate accounting, the bulk of which investors ultimately bear, will disappear.
证券交易委员会主席克里斯托弗·考克斯赞扬使用“更公开、透明和更具比较性的国际性语言”的变动。大企业早就开始热情地准备着这一时刻的到来。这可能会使他们一次性消耗数千万美元，但是随着时间的流逝，前期投人同节省下来的资金相比简直是小巫见大巫。而且还不仅如此：一项研究发现大多数美国公司按照国外标准会获得更多利润。投资者同样也应该感到髙兴。因为使用国际会计准则可以更好地进行比较，例如，将一家法国药品公司同其美国的竞争对手相比较。并且由投资者最终承担的因重复做账而形成的合规成本也会消失。
Accountants point to other benefits. IFRS is less complex than GAAP, with fewer exceptions; America’s accounting rules, like its tax code, are creaking under bolted-on guidance. It is also more principles-based, granting auditors greater room to use judgment. This can be good or bad, of course, but most experts say more leeway is needed.
会计师也指出了实行此法的其他好处。国际财务报表准则比公认会计准则要简单些，而且特例也比较少。美国的会计准则，像其税法一样,在刻板的准则下开始越来越不适用于现实。国际财务报表准则通常是以原则为基础的，允许稽核员有更多的空间来作判断。当然，这样自然是有利有弊，但是大多数专家认为更多的灵活空间是很必要的。
For several years, the SEC and the London-based International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)，which oversees the international rules, focused on steadily bringing the two sets of standards together. But it has been a struggle, largely thanks to the Byzantine nature of the American system. Mr. Cox embraced the more radical approach approved this week in the belief that it would boost the competitiveness of American firms by removing barriers to investment. The "roadmap" is the latest in a string of proposals under his leadership designed to bring American and foreign markets closer together.
多年来，证券交易管理委员会和总部位于伦敦负责监制国际会计准则的国际会计准则委员会一直致力于将两套标准融为一体。但是过程非常艰辛，很大程度上是因为美国会计系统纷繁复杂的本质特点。库克斯这周采纳了较为激进的方案，因为他相信消除投资障碍会提升美国公司的竞争力。在他指导下提出的一系列建议所绘制的“发展蓝图”就是为了使得美国和国外市场能够更紧密地联系在一起。
Not everyone is happy. Some politicians, including the head of the congressional committee that oversees the SEC, worry about ceding standard-setting power to the IASB. Even though America has seats on its board, there is concern that it will be under-represented. Some want it to have influence commensurate with the size of America’s equity markets, which account for almost half of global market capitalization. Others worry about the IASB’s finances and its susceptibility to outside influence. One of the SEC’s commissioners said the plan should only be waved through once it is clear that secure, independent funding is in place.
但这样做也并非皆大欢喜。包括监管SEC的国会委员会会长在内的一些政客担心这会使制定标准的权力落人国际会计准则委员会手中。尽管美国在国际会计准则委员会中也有委员席位，但是他们仍担心其代表名额不足。一些人则想使其影响力同占全球市场资本总额一半的美国股票市场不相上下。其他人则担心国际会计准则委员会的财务状况且害怕委员会容易受到外界影响。一个证券交易管理委员的委员表示，除非这个计划有稳定独立的资金筹备到位，否则是不会通过的。
There are worries overseas too, for instance that the SEC will try to interfere with IFRS and interpret it in a narrow, prescriptive way. Standards issued by the IASB are supposed to be endorsed without modification. It remains to be seen whether America will be able to accept this.
对此，国外的企业同样也有他们的忧虑，例如证券交易委员会会干涉国际财务报表准则或者从狭义、惯例的角度来对其进行理解。国际会计准则委员会发布的标准应该在无改动的状况下才能得到认可。美国是否能够接受还是未知数。
