The Wall Street Journal-20080204-Cox Calls for Global Accounting Plan

Return to: The_Wall_Street_Journal-20080204

Cox Calls for Global Accounting Plan

Full Text (126  words)

WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators should consider devising a road map to move U.S. companies toward international accounting practices, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said Friday.

"Investors need a common accounting language," Mr. Cox said in a speech Friday to the European-American Business Council.

Mr. Cox said the issue is on his agenda for 2008. The SEC took an initial step last year, allowing non-U.S. companies to use international accounting in the U.S. for the first time, and asked whether U.S. companies should be allowed or required to use international accounting in place of U.S. accounting.

Mr. Cox and his European Union counterpart, commissioner for internal markets Charlie McCreevy, are slated to discuss these and other issues at a meeting in Amsterdam this week of international securities regulators.