This is one thing of which I am certain: If finalized, the fair value provisions of the FASB's financial instruments exposure draft (file no 1810-100) would be the most significant change to financial reporting since the founding of the FASB…
According to the American Bankers Association's August 5th letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the banking industry will be fundamentally changed if the FASB were to require banks to account for its loans at fair value. Everybody who thinks that…
In researching an IFRS question recently, I stumbled across a whole new (for me) source of stealth guidance put out by the IASB's International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC). I am referring to official descriptions of issues that were presented to IFRIC,…
In the good old days, you recognized the assets you owned. For the reasons why things eventually became a lot more complicated than that, there is plenty of blame to go around. Blame the banks and their minions of financial…
I don't watch TV very much, except for sports – lots of sports. I nonetheless tore myself away from ESPN for thirty minutes last week when a friend strongly suggested that I watch an interview of Paul Volcker (former Fed…
Prof. Robert Bloomfield of Cornell University posted an interesting accounting question on the FASRI (FASB Research Initiative) blog. I'm taking the liberty of repeating it here in its entirety: A policy proposal floating around these days is to require banks…
It came as no surprise that SEC Chief Accountant James Kroeker's first public foray, since Mary Schapiro deigned to remove "Acting" from his title, was to announce that the IFRS Roadmap has once again become a priority at the SEC.…
In this post, I'll be reviewing two comment letters submitted to the FASB in response to its Discussion Paper (DP) on lease accounting* by the Investors Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC) of the FASB, and the CFA Institute Centre for Financial…
I am going to cap off the topic of loan accounting, which occupied my last three posts (here, here and here), with a 'proof' and further explanation of my solution to the simple problem I introduced in the first post…
Continuing my previous post, here's reasons 6 – 10 with my responses. 6. There are also hedge accounting considerations. Paragraph 79 of IAS 39 does not allow interest rate risk hedge accounting for HTM securities. Paragraph 21(d) of FAS 133…