The US Securities and Exchange Commission has raised the unexpected possibility of US companies being allowed to file their accounts in line solely with international accounting standards, not US rules – creating the hope of a genuine global accounting benchmark.

The chief US financial watchdog revealed the idea as it announced plans to issue two papers later this year on potential changes to the status of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in the US.

They could herald a drastic change to the basis on which listed companies in the US have filed their accounts for decades.

Official US endorsement of IFRS would also mark a landmark step in creating a single set of global standards.

John White, the director of the SEC’s division of corporation finance, said in a statement late on Tuesday: “The actions announced represent critical steps towards a future regulatory framework in which IFRS may be used on a stand-alone basis by foreign private issuers [in the US] and possibly also by US issuers.”

The SEC was already working towards eliminating, by 2009, a requirement that non-US companies listed in New York must refile parts of their accounts under US GAAP reporting rules even if they report under IFRS.

But the reference to letting US companies file only under IFRS came as a shock to most observers.

The existence of multiple accounting systems makes it harder for investors to compare corporate performance and raises the cost of compiling financial statements for multinationals.

The announcement came even as the IFRS continue to attract considerable criticism in the European Union, where they have been in force since 2005.

An assortment of companies, investors and accountants share concerns that the rules are too complex and that rule-writers at the International Accounting Standards Board are promoting too much use of “fair” or market values.

The US GAAP itself has been criticised for complexity and for encouraging more of a form-over- substance approach to financial reporting.

In a related initiative, the IASB and its US counterpart, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, are already seeking to narrow the differences between their respective rules.

But the IASB has come under serious fire recently for publishing a standard on segment reporting – IFRS 8 – that would give executives the freedom to report results along product and geographical lines of their own choosing.

The European parliament last week issued a motion expressing concern about the European Commission’s plans to endorse IFRS 8.

The parliament called for an in-depth assessment of the impact of IFRS 8 before any implementation is rolled out.