Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation received a report early this year from the blue-ribbon Panel on Standard Setting for Private Companies on how best to meet the needs of users of private-company financial statements. The report recommends that the FAF set up a separate standard-setting board to evaluate both old and new standards published by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, to determine whether private companies need different standards for recognition, measurement, presentation, and disclosure of financial information. If differences are warranted, the new board would have the authority to adopt them.
Predictably, the panel asserted that the different needs of ...