BNA Accounting Blog

August  13,  2010
Standards-Setters Join Twitter
It looks like a few standards-setters have joined the social media wave.  The Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) recently joined Twitter.  For real-time updates, follow them at http://twitter....

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August  11,  2010
Modified Plan Revealed for Converging Accounting Standards
In a recent letter to leaders of the G-20 nations, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) outlined a modified accounting standards convergence strategy.  This modified convergence strategy retains a June 2011 target completion date for...

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June  8,  2010
Controversy Brewing on Financial Instruments Proposal
The change portended by the fresh U.S. accounting proposal on financial instruments and its planned shift to recording loans and many more items at fair value on balance sheets already appears to be causing controversyin the standard-setting world, at banks, and in seats of finance and governme...

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February  10,  2010
Shifting Stance on Fair Value?
Is there a shift in attitudes toward fair value financial reporting? Financial institutions continue to argue against fair value. But other perspectives are also being advanced. Researcher Sanders Shaffer from the Boston Fed's Quantitative Analysis Unit reported recently on his analysis of a sampl...

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January  25,  2010
Doubts on Convergence Objectives
Accounting professionals interviewed by BNA raised serious questions about whether the FASB and IASB ought to be knocking themselves out trying to converge major standards on financial instruments, revenue recognition, and leasing by their self-imposed June 30, 2011, deadline. For example, Robert Uh...

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January  15,  2010
A Very Busy New Year for Standard Setters
Already this year, the FASB and IASB held a joint meeting by videoconference Jan. 5. Next week, they are set to meet Monday through Wednesday in London (Jan. 18 - 20), following up on their pledge to consider standards jointly as the more efficient approach to holding separate meetings.Let's start b...

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December  8,  2009
IASB Parent Launches Search for New Chairman
The term of International Accounting Standards Board Chairman David Tweedie is set to expire in June 2011, which also happens to be the timeframe for the IASB and FASB to complete the massive amount of work they've undertaken to converge significant accounting guidance under the 2008 version of thei...

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December  4,  2009
Decoupling Accounting Standards from Bank Regulations
Officials from the Financial Accounting Standards Board --- and others that support the independence of the FASB -- have been emphasizing a "decoupling" argument for about a year now, and they have been hitting the theme with new emphasis over the last month, and expect to sing the refrain at greate...

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November  18,  2009
PCAOB Reforms Included in Investor Protection Act
The exemption from SOX auditor attestation requirements for small businesses got most of the attention when the House Financial Services Committee approved the Investor Protection Act (H.R. 3817) Nov. 4.  But the House bill also includes amendments to the authority of the Public Company Accounting O...

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November  3,  2009
IASB, FASB link arms on financial instruments
By most reports, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board made good progress during their joint meeting Oct. 26 - 28 in Norwalk, Conn. So much so, that the two boards agreed to meet jointly more often in 2010."We seem to be more effective and efficien...

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October  23,  2009
Time to 'Roll Up Sleeves' on Details of IFRS Plan
Less than a month after being installed as chief accountant for the Securities and Exchange Commission, James Kroeker sat down with BNA senior accounting correspondent Steve Burkholder for an on-the-record interview, the transcript of which was published in the Oct. 2 issue of Accounting Policy & Pr...

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October  8,  2009
Does Accounting System Need a `Hard Shake'?
During the Oct. 5-6 meeting of the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council, Ralph Ferrara, managing partner of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, asked the question: "Does the system need a hard shake?" We "continue to take this rusting superstructure and add to it," Ferrara said, expressing frustration t...

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