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Accounting Standards Update

FASB Channels EITF Proposals, One to Fix Bank Bailouts

Tammy Whitehouse April 20, 2012

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has proposed three separate updates to accounting standards recommended by its Emerging Issues Task Force, one of which is meant to better explain government intervention to save a failed bank.

Companies Laboring to Make Sense of New Fair-Value Rules

Tammy Whitehouse March 20, 2012

With the first-quarter close approaching, companies and their auditors are still trying to determine how they will comply with a new rule that adjusts the method for measuring fair value and requires new disclosures. "Companies are still ... trying to figure out what this really means and what it is going to look like," says Manish Choudhary, a principal at Deloitte. Details inside.

FASB Simplifies Impairment Test for Intangible Assets

Tammy Whitehouse January 27, 2012

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has proposed to simplify accounting for intangible assets with an indefinite shelf life, such as licenses, distribution rights, and trademarks. The proposal adds an optional step to the front end of the impairment test that would allow companies to skip a complete, quantitative analysis when the full test clearly isn't necessary.

New Disclosures Required for Multi-Employer Pension Plans

Tammy Whitehouse August 09, 2011

The Financial Accounting Standards Board detailed its plan to revise an accounting standard on multi-employer pension plans, such as union plans that require corporate funding as part of collective bargaining agreements. Companies will be required to disclose the amount they are contributing to each significant multi-employer plan that they support and its funded status. More details inside.

FASB Proposes ASU on Real Estate in Subsidiaries

Tammy Whitehouse July 27, 2011

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is seeking comments on a proposed standard update that would eliminate some of the disparity in how companies de-consolidate certain real estate assets due to a debt default. FASB's Emerging Issues Task Force recommended that FASB require companies to treat all real estate the same, even if it is held in a stand-alone subsidiary.

Leveraged Leases Going Out of Style

Tammy Whitehouse July 26, 2011

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is putting the finishing touches on a new standard for leases that will include no special treatment for leveraged lease arrangements, and already companies are abandoning the financing technique. "Prices for all of those products will be higher because FASB is killing the product," says Bill Bosco, a public policy consultant with the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association.

FASB, IASB Finalize New Fair-Value Rules

Tammy Whitehouse May 13, 2011

Fair value under U.S. accounting rules finally means the same thing as it does under international accounting rules. Last week the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board published their new converged standards, with a common definition of fair value and clarifications on how to measure it.

FASB Overseer Plans Formal Review for New Standards

Tammy Whitehouse November 23, 2010

As the overseer of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the Financial Accounting Foundation plans to begin taking a closer look at the accounting standards issued by the board.FAF has developed a new process for performing post-implementation reviews of new accounting and reporting standards issued by the FASB as well as...

FASB Revises Views on Expected Credit Losses

Tammy Whitehouse November 17, 2010

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is starting to soften its stand on how companies should account for expected credit losses as it pick through a long list of objections to its proposed accounting standards update for financial instruments.FASB met with the International Accounting Standards Board to work through various questions...

FASB Backs Off Again on Controversial Rule Proposals

Tammy Whitehouse November 11, 2010

Yet another controversial accounting proposal is moving off the charts for the 2010 reporting year after the Financial Accounting Standards Board determined it needs more time to work on new rules around multiemployer pension plans. On a related note, the board also determined it will hold off on any further...

FASB Postpones Plans for Investment Property Rule

Tammy Whitehouse November 10, 2010

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has pushed back the targeted release date of another proposed accounting standards update, this time delaying by one quarter a final standard on whether companies should be allowed or required to measure investment properties at fair value.FASB originally planned to finalize a new standard by...

FASB Floats Change to Repurchase Agreement Accounting

Tammy Whitehouse November 04, 2010

To short-circuit any further Lehman-like treatment of repurchase agreements, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has published a proposed accounting standards update that would more explicitly explain how to account for transactions with an obligation to repurchase an asset.In Proposed ASU: Transfers and Servicing (Topic 860) – Reconsideration of Effective Control...

FASB Solicits Ideas on How to Implement New Rules

Tammy Whitehouse October 20, 2010

If you’re getting nervous about how your corporate finance staff can implement reams of new accounting rules that are on the horizon, here’s your chance to sounds off to the rule makers and tell them how it ought to be done.The Financial Accounting Standards Board has published a discussion paper...

FASB Targets Loan Loss Allowances With New Guidance

Tammy Whitehouse October 12, 2010

Companies may soon have some new rules to follow to determine when a loan modification or an adjustment in credit terms constitutes a “troubled debt restructuring” for accounting purposes.The Financial Accounting Standards Board has published a proposed update to accounting standards that is intended to make it clearer to any...

FASB Advances EITF Proposals on Goodwill, M&A

Tammy Whitehouse October 08, 2010

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is proposing new updates to the Accounting Standards Codification around goodwill write-downs, business combinations, and revenue recognition for healthcare entities based on recommendations from its Emerging Issues Task Force.In the proposal titled Intangibles – Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): How the Carrying Amount of a Reporting Unit...

FASB Updates SEC Guidance in Codification

Tammy Whitehouse August 27, 2010

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has published an update to the Accounting Standards Codification to reflect some technical corrections to guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission that is included in the Codification.The update amends various SEC paragraphs based on comments the SEC has received and based on its issuance...

FASB Offers Up Smattering of Narrow Guidance Proposals

Tammy Whitehouse August 26, 2010

Despite some heavy duty accounting changes on its agenda, the Financial Accounting Standards Board is still making room for more narrow or industry-specific issues, with several proposals published in just the last week handed up by the board’s Emerging Issues Task Force.The EITF has been wrestling with how insurance companies...

FASB Plans New Rules Around Repurchase Agreements

Tammy Whitehouse August 02, 2010

Nearly five months after revelations of questionable repurchase accounting at Lehman Brothers, the Financial Accounting Standards Board is taking up a new project to see if it can plug holes in accounting rules that allowed it to happen.FASB Chairman Robert Herz told the board in a recent regular meeting he...

FASB Requires More Disclosures Around Credit Risk

Tammy Whitehouse July 23, 2010

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has finalized a stop-gap disclosure rule to flesh out more information about the credit quality of financing receivables as it continues to develop a more comprehensive standard on financial instruments.Accounting Standards Update No. 2010-20, Receivables (Topic 310) calls for more credit risk disclosures to give...

PwC Webcast Capsulizes Third-Quarter Reporting Concerns

Tammy Whitehouse July 07, 2010

Looking into the third quarter, companies should prepare to face new regulations, new accounting standards, and new tax rules that together promise to significantly transform financial reporting for public companies.Change—and the pace of change—gave PricewaterhouseCoopers plenty of ground to cover in its recent quarterly Webcast on current accounting and reporting...

FASB Approaches Adjustments to Fair-Value Measurement

Tammy Whitehouse July 01, 2010

In another strike toward a single global accounting rule book, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has published a proposed Accounting Standards Update to tweak requirements in U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles for how to measure fair value and disclose information about those measurements.The International Accounting Standards Board meanwhile published a revised...

FASB Proposal Draws Heated Early Feedback

Tammy Whitehouse June 16, 2010

Who knew accounting could get so emotional? A proposal from the Financial Accounting Standards Board is already drawing a sizable stack of correspondence, and it certainly couldn’t be described as fan mail.The FASB proposed in late May a pair of new Accounting Standards Updates that would require a new method...

FASB Codifies SEC Announcement on Foreign Currency

Tammy Whitehouse May 14, 2010

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has codified a workaround blessed by the Securities and Exchange Commission for companies that may have ended up with some odd results in accounting for activities in Venezuela, where the economy is considered inflationary.FASB published Accounting Standards Update No. No. 2010-19 to update the rules...

FASB Issues More Updates on Loan Modifications, Revenue

Tammy Whitehouse April 30, 2010

The Financial Accounting Standards Board finished April with two more Accounting Standards Updates to reflect some narrow but sticky implementation issues tackled by the board’s Emerging Issues Task Force.The board published Accounting Standards Update No. 2010-18 to address how financial institutions should account for bad loans they have acquired as...

FASB Finalizes Guidance on Narrow Accounting Topics

Tammy Whitehouse April 28, 2010

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has finalized a smattering of new guidance in the past few weeks with some narrow audiences in mind, clearing its rulemaking agenda for bigger changes to come.While FASB traditionally has sought to answer some narrow questions or confusion around implementing accounting standards, it has avoided...

FASB Finishes Guidance on Embedded Credit Derivatives

Tammy Whitehouse March 10, 2010

If you were confused over the complexity of derivative and hedging rules as it relates to recent chaos in credit markets, perhaps the latest clarification from the Financial Accounting Standards Board will help clear things up.FASB published Accounting Standards Update No. 20101-11 – Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815): Scope Exception...

FASB Amends Subsequent Events Rule to Square With SEC

Tammy Whitehouse February 25, 2010

Public companies now have a new requirement to follow in accounting for events that take place after a financial statement period ends but before the statements are issued.The Financial Accounting Standards Board published Accounting Standards Update No. 2010-09 to amend Accounting Standards Codification Topic 855, Subsequent Events, which describes how...

FASB Makes Minor Fixes but Spotlights Derivatives

Tammy Whitehouse February 09, 2010

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has finalized some minor changes to the Accounting Standards Codification in Update 2010-8. While none of them are expected to result in significant changes in accounting practice, clarifications regarding embedded derivatives and hedging may require some close attention.The changes represent minor updates to accounting rules...

FASB Finalizes Changes on Consolidation, Equity

Tammy Whitehouse January 07, 2010

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued some new updates to the Accounting Standards Codification to revise existing rules on consolidation, equity, and oil and gas reserve accounting.In Accounting Standards Update No. 2010-02, the FASB clarifies the types of transactions that should be accounted for as a decrease in ownership...

New Rules Governs Share-Lending Arrangements

Tammy Whitehouse October 16, 2009

Companies that enter into share-lending arrangements in connection with convertible debt offerings now have some new accounting rules to follow.The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2009-15, which spells out new rules for how to account for share-lending arrangements when linked with convertible debt issuance or other...

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