Lobbying and a Single Set of Accounting Standards Worldwide: the Stock Options Accounting Case

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 GAAPs and International Standards (IASs/IFRSs) and to develop jointly any new standard. This commitment has been renewed in 2006 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 by providing several arguments. The literature survey helps to demonstrate that these difficulties are mainly based on the different framework assumptions between US GAAPs and IAS/IFRS and on the lobbying activity of involved stakeholders. Then, the analysis of stock option accounting issuing process is addressed as an useful example of how the convergence that resulted in this case could have been the outcome of the lobbying activity and of the behaviour of big companies and other involved parties toward the FASB rather than of a real will to converge its own standards with the IFRSs.