In July 2007, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued Concept Release on Allowing U.S. Issuers to Prepare Financial Statements in Accordance with International Financial Reporting Stan¬ dards to solicit the public’s interest in allowing U.S. companies to use International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) rather than U.S. GAAP to prepare their financial statements. In this Concept Release the SEC asked for public comment on a number of questions including the following: LO4

• What incentives would a U.S. company have to prepare IFRS financial statements?

• What do companies believe the cost of converting from U.S. GAAP to IFRS would be?

• What would be the effects on the U.S. public capital markets of some U.S. companies reporting in accordance with IFRS and some in accordance with U.S. GAAP?

• What factors, if any, might lead to concern about the quality of audits of IFRS financial statements?

Required Draft a memo to the secretary of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission providing your response to these questions.