The two big issues on the international accounting agenda this year will be the treatment of financial instruments and further steps toward global convergence, according to a new report from credit agency Fitch Ratings.

While several countries are set to fully adopt International Financial Reporting Standards this year, the report says that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s yet-to-be-adopted roadmap for U.S. companies’ move to IFRS is looking “overly ambitious.”

The proposed option to let some companies adopt by the end of this year looks especially doubtful, says the Fitch report, “Accounting and Financial Reporting: 2010 Global Outlook.”

It’s highly unlikely that the U.S. would abandon the goal of a single set of global accounting standards, says Fitch Director Olu Sonola, adding: “The more likely scenario is for the SEC to amend the current timetable while establishing more milestones to lay the path to the eventual adoption of IFRS by all U.S. public companies as advocated by G-20 leaders.”

The report predicts that the first quarter of 2010 will see many U.S. companies bringing securitizations and other structured finance entities back onto their balance sheets. The move will be prompted by the implementation of new off-balance-sheet standards, SFAS 166 and SFAS 167, that remove a consolidation exemption for special purpose entities and make the test for consolidation qualitative rather than quantitative.

Those changes will mostly affect banks, but Fitch expects “pockets of unexpected announcements” by non-financial companies.

Other issues that standard setters are likely to debate this year include financial statement presentation, lease accounting, and revenue recognition, says Fitch.

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