U.S. participation in the development of global accounting standards has a long history. In 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act required the SEC to conduct a study and report to Congress on the adoption of a principles-based accounting system. The report noted that global accounting standardization would produce a myriad of benefits, including greater comparability for investors across firms and industries globally; more efficient allocation of scarce capital among investment alternatives; and lower costs of capital, since global accounting standards would eliminate the duplicative cost of preparing two sets of financial statements, and make it easier for companies to access capital in more markets.

Since that report was completed in 2003, more than 100 countries, including all countries in the European Union, have elected to require or permit IFRS reporting by listed companies. Of these, approximately 85 countries have decided to require reporting based on IFRS for all domestic, listed companies. The market capitalization of exchanges within countries currently requiring IFRS-based reporting represented approximately 35 percent of global market capitalization in FY 2008, as compared to 34 percent for U.S. exchanges. The share of global market capitalization represented by IFRS markets is expected to grow still larger with the inclusion of the additional countries that have decided to adopt IFRS by 2011. But governance and accountability for IFRS standard setting remains a U.S. and international priority. To address these concerns, the SEC in 2008 led international efforts to create a monitoring body to promote both the independence and accountability of the trustees with oversight responsibility for the IFRS standard setter.