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Breakage recognition, derivative contract novations addressed
FASB issues 2 new standards.
Please note: This item is from our archives and was published in 2016. It is provided for historical reference. The content may be out of date and links may no longer function.
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FASB issued financial reporting standards that address recognition of breakage for prepaid stored-value products and the effects of derivative contract novations on existing hedge accounting relationships.
Both standards are the result of projects undertaken by FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force.
Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2016-04, Liabilities—Extinguishment of Liabilities (Subtopic 405-20) Recognition of Breakage for Certain Prepaid Stored-Value Products, addresses liabilities related to prepaid stored-value products (such as gift cards and traveler’s checks).
The standard addresses inconsistencies in practice related to the methodology used to recognize the portion of the dollar value of the prepaid stored-value products that are not redeemed, known as breakage.
Although the new revenue recognition standard, Topic 606, includes authoritative breakage guidance, financial liabilities are excluded from the scope of Topic 606.
Prepaid stored-value products within the scope of ASU No. 2016-04 are financial liabilities. The amendments in the standard provide a narrow-scope exception to the guidance in Subtopic 405-20 to require that breakage for those liabilities be accounted for under the breakage guidance in the new revenue recognition standard, Topic 606.
ASU No. 2016-05, Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815), Effect of Derivative Contract Novations on Existing Hedge Accounting Relationships, addresses the topic of novations, a term that refers to replacing one of the parties to a derivative instrument with a new party.
The derivative instrument that is the subject of a novation may be a hedging instrument. The standard states that a change in the counterparty to a derivative instrument that has been designated as a hedging instrument under Topic 815 does not result in a requirement to de-designate that hedging relationship and discontinue the application of hedge accounting, as long as all other hedge accounting criteria continue to be met.
