Our editorial partner, Going Concern, has a post up today on convergence of global accounting standards that encouraged me to take a closer look at what the SEC had to say last week, when it decided to add another year at minimum to the transition period before US companies would be required to report their results according to international rules. (Now it will be 2015 at the earliest.)

I certainly agree that convergence may be a pipe dream, but not for the reason that Adrienne Gonzalez focuses on. Yes, cost may be an issue. But from what I see in the SEC statement, what really raised the commission's eyebrows were complaints about how easily the International Accounting Standards Board caved to political pressure during the financial crisis to ease its fair value reporting rules for banks.

Yes, the IASB's US counterpart, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, wasn't exactly an unwavering pillar of apolitical strength, either, but FASB didn't bend over completely backwards the way the IASB did, as we've discussed before.

Nor, of course, is the SEC itself immune from pressure from bank regulators, as evident in its readiness to settle the recent Bank of America case. And of course the SEC itself has leaned on FASB when pressured to do so.

Perhaps it's a lot easier to stand on principle when unprincipled behavior is taking place on some one else's turf.  Or maybe this is the sort of thing what Adrienne means when she points to "cultural differences" between GAAP and IFRS.

Whatever the explanation, the SEC clearly took concerns expressed by the CFA Institute and other representatives of investors about the independence of the IASB and the foundation that backs it to heart, however carefully the commision expressed those concerns.

Moreover, the SEC said it will keep tabs on the monitoring board that the foundation has put in place to oversee its operation and made clear that it will have a ways to go to satisfy the SEC before it signs on to IFRS.

The report noted that "commenters expressed concerns regarding whether the independence of the IASB recently has been compromised. A commenter further questioned whether the IFRS Foundation and the IASB have the ability and infrastructure to confront political pressure from governments around the world."

"The staff believes that effective oversight is critical to any decision to incorporate IFRS into the financial reporting system for U.S. issuers," the report stated.