n  fei technical committees update  n

Committee on Corporate Reporting (CCR)

Staff Liaison: Christine DiFabio

Key Issues of the Committee:

n The potential move from U.S. GAAP reporting to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

n The impacts of FAS 157, Fair Value Measurements and ongoing implementation issues and the impact to both financial and non-financial assets and liabilities.

n Pending effective date beginning 1/1/08 (for calendar year companies) of FAS 141R, Business Combinations (Updated 2007).

n Improvements to financial reporting as suggested by the SEC Advisory Committee to improve financial reporting (CIFiR).

n Proposed mandate of financial statement filings in XBRL.

 

CCR Meeting:  CCR’s next quarterly meeting is scheduled for September 4-5 in Dallas, TX. The meeting includes a presentation by CCR’s Controllership Working Group on Company finance organization structure and approaches to managing talent, as well as updates on various accounting and reporting issues. In addition to the traditional CCR meeting occurring on those dates, CCR will also be holding a special IFRS Discussion Session for Thursday September 4 which will run concurrent to the main meeting. The session will be attended by CCR member companies IFRS project leads and will provide them an opportunity to dialogue/learn from their peers on various aspects of potential IFRS implementation. 

 

CCR’s last full committee meeting took place on June 19-20 in Stamford, CT. This meeting included a two-hour full public Board session with the FASB. Discussion topics with the FASB included project updates/dialogue on FAS 140 and FIN 46(R) Amendments, FAS 5 on Contingencies, FAS 157 on Fair Value Measurements, Post-Retirement Benefits, FAS 133 on Derivatives and Hedging Instruments, and International Convergence.  Additional guest speakers at the meeting included Francoise Flores and Dominique Bonsergent of the EFRAG to discuss building cooperation between the US and European preparer communities on financial reporting areas and Laurin Smith with JPMorganChase to provide an update on FAS 133 implementation issues. Additional agenda items for the meeting included updates on FAS 157 Fair Value Measurement implementation issues, updates on implementation issues surrounding FAS 141(R) on Purchase accounting, SEC’s XBRL proposal, the June EITF meeting and an update from CCR’s PCAOB subcommittee liaison meeting.

 

Comment Letters:  The committee filed a comment letter on July 1 to the U.S. Treasury’s Advisory Committee on the Audit Profession draft report and subsequent addendum. CCR indicated its support for “the efforts of the ACAP in developing recommendations designed to enhance the sustainability of a strong and vibrant public company auditing profession, and in support of Treasury’s mission to promote conditions for prosperity and stability.”  The committee did provide some areas for improvement as well.

 

Committee on Private Companies (CPC)

Staff Liaison: Serena Dávila

Program Subcommittee:  The CPC Program Subcommittee will have its next call on August 8.  The subcommittee will be discussing and formulating topics for the Private Company Track of the 2009 Summit.  The Subcommittee has completed its planning for the fall 2008 Fall Private Company Forum scheduled to take place in Chicago at the Renaissance Chicago O’Hare Hotel on September 23.  

 

Standards Subcommittee:  The Standards Subcommittee is finalizing its comment letters on FIN 48 (Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes) and FAS 5 (Accounting for Contingencies).  The CPC’s FIN 48 letter supports a FIN 48 exemption for private

 

(Continued on page 4)