Acceptance From Foreign Private Issuers of Financial Statements Prepared in Accordance With International Financial Reporting Standards Without Reconciliation to U.S. GAAP

The Commission is proposing to accept from foreign private issuers their financial statements prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS') as published by the International Accounting Standards Board ("IASB') without reconciliation to generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP') as used in the United States. To implement this, we propose amendments to Form 20-F and conforming changes to Regulation S-X to accept financial statements prepared in accordance with the English language version of IFRS as published by the IASB without reconciliation to U.S. GAAP when contained in the filings of foreign private issuers with the Commission. We also are proposing conforming amendments to other regulations, forms and rules under the Securities Act and the Exchange Act. Current requirements regarding the reconciliation to U.S. GAAP will not change for a foreign private issuer that uses a basis of accounting other than the English language version of IFRS as published by the IASB.