Accounting rules are in the process of converging into a single international standard. This involves two dominant forms namely the US GAAP and the International Financial Reporting Standards. In the EU all publicly traded companies must adopt them by 2005 and many other countries either have adopted them or plan to do so in the near future. This essay will discuss the opportunities and possibilities of global accounting standards, which will most likely take the form of regulations as in EU directives. Therefore we will give a basic outline why accounting regulation exists