No date has been set for U.S. companies to drop generally accepted accounting principles in favor of the International Financial Reporting Standards, but the members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board are already thinking about how the transition will affect their standards setting activity.

For the time being, the FASB remains committed to its longstanding role of issuing and modifying guidance under U.S. GAAP.

?It's necessary and important to maintain U.S. GAAP, which requires making improvements and fixing problems as they arrive,? said George Batavick, a FASB member, during the Board's Mid-Year Update on June 23, 2008. ?This is something we cannot ignore; maintaining existing GAAP is quite important.?

Batavick also said he favored a two-year moratorium on issuing new accounting standards, one year before and one year after the initial adoption of IFRS in the U.S. During this period, companies would prepare statements in both U.S. GAAP and IFRS, and the time would give companies an opportunity to establish new financial reporting systems with minimal disruption while they adopt the international rules.

Also taking part in the webcast with Batavick were Russell Golden, FASB Technical Director, Jeffrey Mechanick, FASB Project Manager, and Judith O?Dell, the Chair of the Private Company Financial Reporting Committee, which is jointly sponsored by the FASB and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The panel was moderated by Dennis Chookaszian, the Chair of the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC).