[1] The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) authorized the Appraisal Subcommittee (ASC), which is made up of representatives of the leading U.S. government agencies and non-governmental organizations empowered to oversee the U.S. mortgage and banking system.
While USPAP answers a specific regulatory need in the U.S., it has also been adopted by many appraisal professional organizations throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia.
USPAP may be amended, Interpreted, or retired by ASB after exposure to the users of appraisal services and the public in accordance with established rules of procedure.
While USPAP provides a minimum set of quality control standards for the conduct of appraisal in the U.S., it does not attempt to prescribe specific methods to be used.
In June, 2006, the IVSC and TAF jointly issued a memorandum of understanding (MoU), called the "Madison Agreement", in which they pledged to work together toward the goal of reconciling the differences between the two sets of standards.
[2] In 2014, this was updated with a new MoU under which the parties committed to work to remove any remaining differences between the standards that would prevent an appraiser following USPAP also complying with the requirements of the IVS.
While the document describes additional steps necessary to ensure that compliance, a full review of both sets standards is always encouraged.