Financial Accounting Standards Research Initiative

I’ve just finished reading the IASB/FASB exposure draft on revenue recognition, and I have all kinds of questions running through my head. But before I get to those questions, let me first say that I am very impressed with this document. In fewer than 90 paragraphs of guidance (ignoring application guidance), the IASB/FASB have laid [...] Read more > >

In case you haven’t already seen it elsewhere, the FASB website and Bob Herz’s testimony last Friday before the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises both contain Bob Herz’s earlier (April 19) letter to Congressman Barney Frank that discusses accounting standards and the Lehman Bankruptcy report.  Not surprisingly, I found it [...] Read more > >

Mary Barth and Wayne Landsman recently posted a paper that discusses how the financial crisis happened and what role financial accounting had in it. I really enjoyed their discussion of fair value accounting. I think it is a very clear explanation of why people blame fair value accounting and why fair value accounting actually isn’t [...] Read more > >

A recent Journal of Accountancy article states that the SEC Chief Accountant Jim Kroeker would support the FASB’s cutting the number of convergence projects due for completion in 2011. Here’s one excerpt from that article: “June 30, 2011, is an arbitrary deadline and it’s not one that’s been put in place by the SEC or by [...] Read more > >

Stephen Ryan (NYU) joins FASRI to talk about his recent research on the fair value option in the banking industry.  Stephen is one of the most respected accounting academics studying banking and financial instruments these days, so I expect people will have plenty of questions beyond the research study that will form the heart of [...] Read more > >

Typically at the start of every New Year, we spend time thinking about the prior year and all the interesting and exciting events that have happened. 2009 was certainly a banner year for accounting standard setting. As I was thinking back over all that happened and trying to determine what was the most surprising thing [...] Read more > >

* UPDATE: The archived video is shown above. Please note that the welcome screen is displayed for the first 11 minutes and 10 seconds. You’ll want to skip to 11:10 in the video to begin seeing the discussion. We just finished a great Roundtable with Jim Leisenring from the IASB. We will get the video online [...] Read more > >

Somehow I ended up on the mailing list of Risk.Net, which hails itself as “The world’s leading monthly magazine dedicated to the risk management and derivatives industries.”  In this week’s top story, headlined “Abuse of revised IFRS standards “inevitable” – IASB’s Leisenring“, Jim is quoted as expressing concern about using management intent to determine how [...] Read more > >

Securitization certainly seem to be a hot topic!  We had a big turnout for yesterday’s Round Table Discussion, with over 20 people coming in-world for the discussion and even more than that streaming the event live from the web.  I think people were hoping to hear lots of informative and stimulating discussion and, if they [...] Read more > >

The blogosphere is ablaze with reactions to an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about Securitization.  In light of the upcoming roundtable on securitization with Cathy Shakespeare next Tuesday, I thought I would point people toward one of the more interesting perspectives, on the legal blog The Volokh Conspiracy, and related articles on whether financial [...] Read more > >

On Tuesday, July 28th, 4pm ET, Cathy Shakespeare will lead a discussion on securitization.  Cathy will start by giving us a gentle introduction to this complex commercial arrangement, and then use recent research to indicate directions for future work.  To get insights into one of the most central issues in securitization you might start with [...] Read more > >

The FASB just released a Proposed FASB Staff Position that would amend the other-than-temporary (OTT) impairment guidance in two FASB Statements (SFAS 115 and SFAS 124) and in EITF 99-20.  This Proposed FSP seems to make two big changes.  The first relates to the conditions under which management can avoid considering an impairment to be OTT.  Currently, [...] Read more > >