Crisis and global convergence of accounting standards

In 2002 the FASB and the IASB issued a formal agreement (Norwalk Agreement) of strict commitment in order to remove any difference among existing US GAAP and International Standards (IAS/IFRS) and to develop jointly any new standard. This commitment has been renewed in 2006 and again in 2008 with the memorandum of understanding (MoU) that describes the goals and the deadlines for the completion of that project. Although the defined goals of these agreements are clearly stated, several obstacles to their achievement still persist. This paper aims to investigate the difficulties arising from this convergence project and the effects that the crisis could have on the development of such a project. The literature survey helps to demonstrate that these difficulties are mainly based on the different frame- work assumptions between US GAAP and IAS/IFRS and on the lobbying activity of involved stakeholders. Then, the analysis of stock option accounting issuing process and of the re- cent financial worldwide crisis are addressed as useful examples of how two different kinds of crisis have had an impact on moving convergence project toward a specific direction.