Accounting & Auditing Update

FASB has finalized its long-awaited standard giving companies a new, more forward-looking way to account for credit losses in their portfolios. The standard will require companies to reflect expected credit losses on financial assets based on their historical experience, current market conditions, and even forecasts. Tammy Whitehouse has an in-depth look at the standard.

Bankers expect CECL, a new rule on how to reflect credit losses in financial statements, to produce big accounting changes. According to Tammy Whitehouse, some say it is the biggest change ever.

The latest poll on big accounting change says some companies are making plans to devote time in 2017 to the new requirements around lease accounting, according to Tammy Whitehouse.

Bank regulators issued a year-end Q&A on new credit loss rules to assure examiners and institutions understand that scaled modeling of loan loss allowances is permitted. Tammy Whitehouse explores.

Auditors have been notified to be alert to whether corporate SAB 74 disclosures about pending new accounting standards are adequate.

A pending new requirement for how to reflect loan losses in financial statements is beginning to affect how banks do business, according to a recent poll.

Banks appear all over the spectrum in terms of their readiness for CECL, with equal numbers implementing the new model or still in the early stages, a new poll says.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is proposing some amendments to the pending new standard on credit losses.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is planning a number of updates to accounting standards around all three of its major new standards on financial instruments.

The SEC will be looking for increasingly detailed disclosures to investors about the expected effects of moving to a new method for recognizing credit losses.

A PwC analysis shows about half of Fortune 500 companies expect revenue recognition changes to be immaterial, but nearly 20 percent are still evaluating.

Recent surveys suggest continued uncertainty in the financial services sector over how to project credit losses in compliance with a new accounting rule.

Audit committees take note: SEC is putting a lot of faith in you to set the tone for corporate adoption of major changes in accounting requirements.

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

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

FASB staff plan to suggest narrow changes to the new standard on credit losses to answer implementation questions on classification changes, interest, and more.

Investors are not getting much warning about assets and liabilities soon to hit corporate balance sheets as companies prepare to adopt new lease accounting rules.

Banks are asking Treasury to intervene on CECL and delay it, worried implementation will threaten financial stability in a future recession.

The FASB will meet to discern implementation issues associated with CECL, but the possibility of a deferral in the effective date is not on the agenda.

The FASB is reviewing a request from a group of mid-sized financial institutions to revise CECL in a way the board has apparently already considered and dismissed.

FASB has decided to follow the advice of an advisory group and make some changes to CECL to address implementation issues.

Amid calls for a delay or changes to CECL, the SEC's chief accountant is defending the rulemaking process under FASB and its independence.

FEI’s corporate reporting group has developed its own guides for preparers on how to assure sound controls with major new accounting adoptions.

FASB has issued a proposal to amend rules on three major standards on financial instruments to address clarity and implementation issues.

The SEC may be hands-off with respect to CECL, but the House Financial Services Committee is exploring the expected effect of the accounting change on the economy.