The US will not adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (FRS) any time soon - ex US standard-setters and regulators told delegates who had gathered for the ICAEW's Financial Reporting Conference in London.

Several senior accounting figures - among them former chairman of the US Financial Accounting Standards Board, Bob Herz - opined on the awkward view of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), from a US point of view, symbolising a European standard-setter in a 'failing' economic zone.

Herz reassured delegates, however, that although a recent SEC staff paper had frozen all moves towards convergence, it was not a signal that this was entirely a knock-out blow to the IASB - since this only reflected the US position and could not threaten the the role of the IASB moving forward.

Discussion around the US withdrawal from the convergence project was also noted, with observations of the IASB's subsequent withdrawal from projects in which it prioritised bilateral agreements with the FASB, moving increasingly to an agenda in which it is seeking to develop multilateral projects, a plan set to be guided by an advisory group comprising worldwide standard-setters.

E&Y's global leader for IFRS services, Ruth Picker gave the view that there was such a big gap between US GAAP and IFRS anyway as staff moved from one regime to the other.

The sentiments came amidst a paper, The Future of IFRS, published by the ICAEW, which urged the IASB to 'end the era of convergence' suggesting that companies around the world should have the option of applying IFRS.

Fidelity fund manager, Jed Wrigley observed that with recent developments in leasing project, the current direction from the IASB is a good compromise. He expected it would lead to informative information for analysts.

Phil Barden, leader for Deloitte's global revenue recognition team also praised the revenue recognition standard for being of a really good quality.