Concerns have been raised about the independence of the US accounting standard setter by a group of investors who believe it has been 'substantially eroded'. The Investors Technical Advisory Committee, a panel set up by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to give investors' views on accounting rules, believes that the erosion of independence comes amid the political pressure to bow to easing mark-to-market accountancy rules. In a letter addressed to John Brennan, chairman of the Financial Accounting Foundation which oversees rule makers at the FASB, ITAC said the structure of the US standard setter has been 'insufficiently robust' to fend off recent political pressure. 'Given the disturbing potential for certain weaknesses to undermine the quality of the standards issued by the board going forward, and further erode investor trust and confidence in financial reporting at a time of financial crisis partly attributable to poor transparency, we believe it is crucial that the board and its trustee, the FAF, take swift and appropriate actions to protect and preserve the integrity of our financial reporting system,' it said. ITAC is suggesting the restoration of the structure of the FASB to seven full time members as opposed to five in order to help it deal with any future political pressures and it advised that with 'very public threats and intimidation against the chairman' of the FASB, giving him complete authority over what accounting rules end up on the board's agenda should also be reversed.