Accounting & Auditing Update

The Securities and Exchange Commission is exploring whether to provide U.S. companies with the option to present their financial statements under International Financial Reporting Standards, SEC Chief Accountant James Schnurr said last week. Schnurr is studying the staff’s historical work on a possible adoption of IFRS, and reaching out to stakeholders for current views.

Outgoing SEC Chair Mary Jo White is urging her successor to prioritize continued improvement and convergence of accounting standards globally. Tammy Whitehouse has more.

The disturbing rise of non-GAAP reporting in 2016 has prompted standard setters to take a closer look at whether changes to current rules are in order. Tammy Whitehouse explores.

Companies and their auditors are following different going concern disclosure rules, leading to a puzzling disclosure from Sears that has left capital market players scratching their heads.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has settled on a new way for companies to amortize, or write down the value, of certain debt securities.

Companies that have struggled with navigating the U.S. GAAP Taxonomy to complete their XBRL filings will want to weigh in on the effort to make it more useable.

The IASB has issued new standard on how to account for insurance contracts, considered among the most significant changes ever made to international accounting rules.

The FASB is advising accountants to sit tight through some reconstructive work in the coming months in the online Accounting Standards Codification.

FASB has completed its annual update to the GAAP taxonomy and has added a new taxonomy for companies to consider addressing international standards.

With tax reform nearly law, the focus for public companies is shifting to whether companies might get some relief from enormous year-end reporting burdens.

With tax reform signed into law, the SEC has issued guidance explaining its expectations with respect to the related financial reporting requirements.

The FASB has decided it will fast-track a change to accounting rules to allow reclassification of the income tax effects of the recent tax reform law.

Accounting activity at publicly held financial institutions apparently is picking up to prepare for new requirements for the recognition of loan losses.

Foreign private issuers who file their financial statements following IFRS are getting some helpful tips from the SEC on how to do so in XBRL.

Banking regulators are proposing changes to regulatory capital requirements to address forward-looking credit losses under a new accounting standard.