Financial Reporting

  FASB issued a proposal intended to improve financial reporting by resolving some potential ambiguity about the breadth of the embedded credit derivative scope exception in Statement no. 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities. The proposal would amend certain accounting and reporting requirements of paragraph 14B of Statement no. 133 to clarify when embedded credit derivative features, including those in collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and synthetic CDOs, are not considered embedded derivatives subject to potential bifurcation and separate accounting. Comments on the proposal were due Feb. 13. The proposal is available at www.fasb.org/derivatives/01-14-09_C22.pdf.