Financial Instruments

Boards Agree to Mend Financial Instrument Differences

February 01, 2012

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board have agreed to work together to narrow or eliminate differences on how financial instruments should be classified and measured. The separate paths the boards were taking threatened to thwart a converged standard on the topic.
 

IFAC Offers Alerts on Tough Audit Issues

December 30, 2011

Guidance emerging from the International Federation of Accountants might prove useful even in the United States in the coming weeks as companies close the books on 2011 and plan for the year ahead.
 

Boards Settle on Disclosure of Gross, Net Gap

December 19, 2011

Unable to agree on whether companies should present their derivative contracts covered by master netting agreements as gross or net positions, accounting rule makers have instead agreed to require disclosures aimed at helping investors sort out the difference
 

Watch Accounting on Capital Raising Ideas, Firm Warns

November 04, 2011

The tougher it gets to raise capital, the more creative the instruments become. That can create accounting hazards that companies need to watch carefully, says audit firm McGladrey & Pullen.
 

Q&A: A Conversation With America's Top Accountant

October 04, 2011

In the latest of our Q&A interviews, we sat down with Leslie Seidman, chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Inside, Seidman discusses the status of FASB's efforts to converge U.S. accounting rules with International Financial Reporting Standards, FASB's work on loss contingencies, and what's next for the accounting standard setter, including a project that could lighten the disclosure burden.
 

FASB Preps New Rule on Liquidity, Interest Rate Risks

September 14, 2011

The Financial Accounting Standards Board announced its plan to establish new disclosure requirements for all companies to say more about their risks related to liquidity. Financial institutions will also be required to make further disclosures about risks tied to changes in interest rates.
 

FASB Considers Demands for New Liquidity Disclosures

August 19, 2011

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is hearing demands for more information about liquidity risk at all types of companies, not just financial institutions, and is mulling ways that such disclosure could be improved. One consideration: whether financial firms should disclose more about liquidity risk than non-financial businesses.
 

Big 4 Guide Explains Equity-Linked Instrument Rules

July 14, 2011

A new report from PwC will help companies maneuver through the often tricky accounting that goes along with equity-linked securities, including freestanding instruments and embedded features. The guidebook hopes to shed light on the increasingly popular securities and looks at differences of opinion on how to define equity.
 

Audit, Accounting Regulators Promise More Action

June 01, 2011

Tom Linsmeier of FASB, above, and Jay Hanson of the PCAOB both told Compliance Week 2011 attendees last week that new standards are on the way that (hopefully) will provide more clarity around corporate transactions to investors—but they also warned that good standards alone won't necessarily prevent future financial crises. More highlights from their keynote speeches inside.
 

The Implications of Predicting Loan Loss

March 29, 2011

The Financial Accounting Standards Board's recent proposal on impaired loans has the stated objective of recognizing losses before they occur. Columnist Scott Taub argues that the proposal runs counter to traditional accounting principles and would result in a lack of discipline. Inside, he offers an alternative method.
 

FASB Extends Tiered Plan to Financial Liabilities

March 09, 2011

If business strategy should drive how financial assets are valued and reported in the financial statements, then it should drive the valuation and reporting of financial liabilities too. That's the latest thinking from FASB as it continues to rewrite its controversial proposal for how to account for financial instruments. More details inside.
 

Is FASB Hedging on Hedge Accounting?

February 23, 2011

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is reconsidering its original plan to revise accounting standards for financial instruments, perhaps moving to a more complex solution similar to what international rulemakers proposed in December. What are the pros and cons? Details inside.
 

FASB Retreats on Fair Value for Financial Instruments

February 15, 2011

The Financial Accounting Standards Board backed away from plans to require financial companies to use fair value accounting for all financial instruments. Instead, it has proposed the creation of three categories of financial assets and liabilities, each with different valuation criteria and treatment in financial statements. Details inside.
 

FASB Drops Fair Value for Loans Held for Cash

January 26, 2011

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has tentatively reversed course and decided it will not require banks to book loans held to maturity at fair value. Instead, FASB will create three categories of financial assets, each to be measured and recorded in financial statements differently.
 

FASB Revises Views on Expected Credit Losses

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...
 

GAAP, IFRS Now Differ on How to Treat Debt

November 03, 2010

With international rules now modified around how a company accounts for its own debt, analysts are calling on the Financial Accounting Standards Board to follow suit.The International Accounting Standards Board recently finalized a change in International Financial Reporting Standards that tells companies to measure most liabilities at amortized cost, or...
 

IAASB Offers Ideas on Auditing Complex Instruments

October 19, 2010

International audit experts are proposing some new guidance that should be added to the required reading list for U.S. companies and auditors involved with complex financial instruments.The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board is looking for comments on some draft guidance titled International Auditing Practice Statement 1000, Special Considerations in...
 

Investor Feedback Summary May Foretell FASB Retreat

October 04, 2010

The Financial Accounting Standards Board may be sending up a smoke signal with an unusual missive describing how investors aren’t entirely in love with the board’s proposed new rules on financial instruments.The board published a nine-page description of its interaction with investors regarding FASB’s controversial proposal to call for more...
 

FAF Taps Technical Director Golden to Fill Board Seat

September 17, 2010

Russ Golden, current technical director at the Financial Accounting Standards Board, will assume the board seat created by the surprise early retirement of Chairman Robert Herz effective Oct. 1.Golden was appointed by FASB’s overseer, the Financial Accounting Foundation, to fulfill Herz’s unexpired term through June 2012. Herz’s chairman duties will...
 

PwC Queries Investment Mgrs. on Financial Instruments

June 17, 2010

PricewaterhouseCoopers decided to do some research to get a sense of what investors and analysts are really looking for in the way of accounting standards to make it easier for them to grasp what’s in corporate financial statements.They focused on the question that is front-and-center in accounting standard setting these...
 

Convergence, Financials to Dominate Global Agenda

January 15, 2010

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FASB Chair Calls for New Approach for Bank Regulators

December 08, 2009

A frustrated accounting standard setter told an audience full of accountants that someone needs to pry the gorilla of banking regulators off his back.Robert Herz, chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, made perhaps his most detailed and impassioned plea yet that the regulation of financial institutions needs to be...
 

Angry Reaction to Rejection of IFRS 9 in Europe

November 23, 2009

The European Commission’s refusal to adopt a new International Financial Reporting Standard on financial instruments has provoked an angry reaction from parts of the trading bloc’s accounting profession. The International Accounting Standards Board released “IFRS 9 Financial Instruments” on November 13 after calls from the G20 nations to simplify accounting...
 

Standard Setters Still Working on Financial Instruments

November 19, 2009

by Melissa Klein AguilarU.S. and international accounting standard setters are still hashing out their differences with hopes of reaching a converged standard on accounting for financial instruments, according to officials speaking at a financial reporting conference this week.While their current approaches differ markedly, with the United States supporting more use...
 

Financial Instruments Disclosure Poor in Europe

November 16, 2009

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Europe Refuses New Financial Instruments Standard

November 13, 2009

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Boards Try to Sync Approaches on Financial Instruments

October 30, 2009

U.S. and international accounting rule makers spent three days this week making progress on a number of outstanding projects on the road to a unified accounting rule book, most notably trying to iron out their different ideas about how to improve accounting for financial instruments.The economic meltdown exposed big problems...
 

FASB Plans to Require More Fair Value by 2011

August 14, 2009

Another fair-value showdown is taking shape, this time over whether fair value should reach even further than it currently does into balance sheets. But don’t expect the shootout to begin anytime soon.The Financial Accounting Standards Board met this week to pick away at its comprehensive plan to change the way...
 

FASB Calls for More Fair Value for Financial Instruments

July 20, 2009

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is taking the fair value debate to a new level, agreeing it will establish a new requirement for all financial instruments to be presented on the balance sheet at fair value with changes in value recognized through the income statement or balance sheet.It’s a decision...
 

Tweedie Defends Speed of IFRS Reforms

June 11, 2009

International Accounting Standards Board chairman Sir David Tweedie has defended the organization’s response to the financial crisis in front of a meeting of European ministers in Luxembourg.Tweedie told European Union finance ministers that he “took very seriously” their concerns about “the pace and substance” of IASB’s accounting standards reform. And...
 

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