IASB creating forum; FASB extends private company comment deadline

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is proposing the creation of a 12-member forum of national standard setters and regional bodies.

In an Invitation to Comment (ITC) issued Thursday, the IASB proposed that the Americas, Asia-Oceania and Europe each should get three automatic seats on the forum, which will provide technical advice and feedback to the IASB and will be known as the Accounting Standards Advisory Forum (ASAF).

Africa would get one automatic seat, and the remaining two seats would be at-large.

The ASAF is being created to facilitate a more streamlined and effective dialogue between the IASB and the standard setting community.

The ITC is available on the IASB’s website. Comments are due Dec. 17.

Private company framework

In other financial reporting news announced Thursday, FASB extended its deadline to Nov. 9 for comments on its private company decision making framework.

The original deadline on FASB’s Invitation to Comment was Oct. 31, but FASB Chairman Leslie Seidman said in a statement that the extension will accommodate stakeholders who want to comment but have been affected by Hurricane Sandy.

FASB is developing the framework to create criteria to help the board and the newly formed Private Company Council identify when modifications and exceptions to standards should be developed for private companies.

“This will give everyone an opportunity to communicate their views, while providing the staff sufficient time to present its findings for deliberation by the Private Company Council and FASB at the PCC’s first public meeting on December 6,” Seidman said in a statement.

FASB drafting impairment ASU

FASB’s staff has been directed to draft a proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU) on impairment of financial instruments that will contain a credit impairment model that differs from the one the IASB is using.

During a meeting Wednesday, FASB discussed the remaining issues related to its newly developed Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) model, according to a summary of board decisions posted on the board’s website. FASB decided that when drafted, the ASU would reduce financial reporting complexity relating to the measurement of expected credit losses.

The board instructed the staff to prepare an ASU to present to FASB for a formal written ballot.

Because of concerns from stakeholders, FASB retreated in July from the so-called “three-bucket” credit impairment model it has been developing in the financial instruments convergence project with the IASB. The CECL model FASB developed uses a single measurement objective – current estimate of expected credit losses – rather than the dual-measurement approach used in the three-bucket model.

The agenda for both boards includes a fourth-quarter release of EDs on impairment of financial instruments.

—Ken Tysiac (ktysiac@aicpa.org) is a JofA senior editor.