FAF, FASB, and GASB release draft strategic plan

The Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), FASB, and GASB asked stakeholders to review and provide feedback on a new draft strategic plan that the organizations issued Thursday.

The draft outlines the organizations’ top four priorities, which include:

• Practicing and promoting continued excellence in standard setting.
• Demonstrating a commitment to leadership in standard setting.
• Building and maintaining trust with stakeholders.
• Contributing to the public discourse on current and future financial reporting issues.

The draft is “evolutionary,” according to Terri Polley, FAF’s president and CEO. “Those of you who have followed our work over the years will not find much that is unfamiliar or surprising,” she wrote. “But you will find some nuanced changes relating to aspects of how we carry out our mission.”

FAF is the parent organization that oversees FASB and GASB.

The draft affirms that the principal objective of FAF, FASB, and GASB is to develop the highest-quality financial accounting standards and to promote financial reporting that provides investors and other users of financial statements with a clear window into the financial conditions of public and private companies, not-for-profit organizations, and state and local governments.

Another critical element the plan recognizes is the mission to foster better understanding among all of FAF’s stakeholders as to how those standards should be applied and implemented.

Stakeholders are encouraged to read and share the draft and send their comments to strategic.plan@f-a-f.org. FAF’s board of trustees is expected to consider adopting the plan at the board’s February 2015 meeting.

—Sabine Vollmer (svollmer@aicpa.org) is a JofA senior editor.