What prompted the SEC to embark on the historic course of abandoning US GAAP for IFRS? Robert Bruce explains.

John White is an engaging character with a good story to tell. As chief accountant at the formidable US regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), between 2006 and 2008 he brought about headlong change and almost pulled off the biggest coup of all – the abandonment of the long-cherished but over-complex accounting rules embodied in US GAAP and the embracing instead of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).