The future direction of International Financial Reporting Standards has been questioned by one of the UK's leading financial regulators. In his final speech as chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council Paul Boyle has raised concern about the international accounting standard-setter's objective for implementing the convergence of IFRS in front of attendees of the FRC open annual meeting. Boyle stated that the convergence between IFRS and US GAAP, an issue that has promoted heated debate on both sides of the pond, and one that the Securities and Exchange Commission is making a roadmap towards, might actually not be the best strategy for improving international standards. 'We believe that the IASB's objective should be to improve IFRS and should not include reference to convergence with particular national standards,' he said. Continuing, Boyle offered FRC recommendations on how IFRS could be improved, and called for simplification to the rules. 'Is it desirable that IFRS should contain 23 different probability thresholds such as probable, more likely than not, reasonably certain?' he asked attendees of the meeting. The FRC has published a consultation paper Louder than Words in which discussions about the future direction of IFRS are held.