International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), formerly known as International Accounting Standards (IAS), have received increasingly favorable attention in recent years, beginning with the endorsement by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and then, especially, after the European Union mandated use of the IFRS by all EU Member States' publicly held companies, beginning in 2005. Thus, as over 7,000 companies in the twenty-five Member States prepare their consolidated financial statements in early 2006, they will be making a major, and possibly difficult, transition to the IFRS from various predecessor national GAAP standards. Other major nations, including Russia, China, and Australia are also transitioning to IFRS, and both the U.S. and U.K. standard setters are committed to a process of convergence with the IFRS. Thus, there is accelerating momentum toward worldwide embrace of these financial reporting standards-which a few short years ago were virtually unknown to most major reporting entities.