The Securities and Exchange Commission will make a move on the adoption of international accounting standards in early 2010, said Commissioner Elisse Walter in a keynote address today to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

SEC staff members are “formulating a recommendation to the commission” based on the 200-plus comment letters the SEC received regarding its proposed roadmap to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards in the United States. “I expect we will likely consider further action sometime in early 2010,” she said.

The SEC proposed allowing public companies to file financial information under IFRS, some as early as 2010, if certain milestones were met. Those milestones begin with improvements to the international accounting standards and improvements to the governance structure behind the development of those standards.

“There are critical issues that still need to be addressed before the Commission can move forward,” she said. “We will move forward with incorporation of IFRS in U.S. capital markets if, and only if, it’s the right thing to do for U.S. investors.”

Comments were generally supportive of the goal to move toward a single set of global accounting standards, “but they differed—and differed strongly—on the best plan to get there,” Walter said. “The comment letters raise a number of complex issues, including the workability of various aspects of the proposed approach … I am struck by the diversity and also the intensity of the opinions on the issues.”

Walter said commenters raised questions about what role the Financial Accounting Standards Board would have if or when the United States adopts global accounting standards. FASB sets U.S. accounting standards and is working toward converging those with IFRS while international rules are written by the International Accounting Standards Board, but its independence and susceptibility to political pressure have been concerns for the SEC.

“We want to make sure that political pressure does not exist and IASB is strong enough and independent enough to handle that,” said Walter. “We will not move forward until we are satisfied that structure exists.”

She envisions FASB would continue to have a role in setting accounting standards. “(FASB) will continue to report to the SEC, and the SEC sits on the monitoring board that oversees IASB,” she said.