UPDATE 2-Accounting boards to intensify convergence efforts

* Accounting rulemakers to redouble convergence efforts

* Boards plan monthly joint meetings, quarterly reports

* Boards face June 2011 deadline for convergence
(Adds comments by SEC & FASB chairmen, background)

By Emily Chasan

NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - U.S. and international
accounting rulemakers said on Thursday they would intensify
efforts to converge their standards ahead of a June 2011
deadline.

The U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and
London-based International Accounting Standards Board (IASB),
which sets rules for more than 100 countries, said on Thursday
they will hold monthly joint meetings and issue quarterly
updates on their progress to boost transparency and
accountability on their efforts to bring their standards
together.

"We are redoubling our efforts to achieve a single set of
high quality standards," the boards said in a joint statement.

"Our goal is to develop together common standards that
improve financial reporting in the U.S. and internationally and
that foster global comparability," they added.

The boards are working on projects to combine rules on
accounting for financial instruments, consolidations,
derecognition, fair value measurement, revenue recognition,
leases and financial statement presentation, among other
areas.

While the boards are set to speed up their convergence
efforts, board members say they will still work to make sure
the final standards are better than either the U.S. or
international rules as they currently stand.

"For us, convergence is not just about making it the same,
it's got to be about improvement," FASB Chairman Robert Herz
said at a New York State Society of CPAs conference in New York
on Thursday. "There's got to be enough benefit to the U.S., in
our view, to warrant the cost of the changes ... convergence by
it's nature is about change."

The accounting rulemakers will also work to coordinate
their timelines on these projects, they said. A recent
accounting debate about a controversial proposal to expand
mark-to-market accounting rules has partially stemmed from each
board having a different timeline on the standard. Last month,
the boards agreed to redeliberate the areas of the proposal
where they have differences.

The G20 group of leading countries set a mid-2011 deadline
for a single set of global accounting rules at its meeting
earlier this year. The FASB and IASB have also focused on that
target date since several major economies, including Canada,
are expected to adopt International Financial Reporting
Standards (IFRS) around that time.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary
Schapiro said she was "greatly encouraged" by FASB and IASB's
plans to add more transparency to the convergence process.

"I believe that these efforts will result in improved
financial information provided to investors," Schapiro said in
a statement.
(Reporting by Emily Chasan; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and
Matthew Lewis)