FASB and IASB postpone timeline for converging
Leaders of the Financial Account-
NORWALK, CONN.
ing Standards Board and the In-
ternational Accounting Standards
Board said in mid-April that they
have pushed back their work on the
handful of “priority” convergence
projects that they had committed
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to complete this year.
The delay was announced in a
joint podcast by FASB chair Leslie
Seidman and IASB chair Sir David
Tweedie. They said they would “
extend by a few months” their work
on the revenue recognition, leasing, financial instruments and insurance projects.
In the podcast, they insisted
that the original June 2011 date by
which they had originally planned
to complete their major conver-
gence projects was merely a “tar-
get” and not a firm “deadline.”
They acknowledged, however,
that the Group of 20 international
economic leaders had encouraged
them to complete their work by
June 2011. FASB declined to offer
interviews with its officials.
Last fall, the two boards extended the timeline for the major convergence projects after an earlier
extension from June 2011 to the
end of 2011. Under the timeline set
late last year, the two boards agreed
to concentrate on completing the
revenue recognition, leasing and
financial instruments standards by
the end of the year.
Tweedie’s second term as
chairman of IASB will end in June
and he will be replaced by Hans
Hoogervorst. “We have decided
to extend the timetable for a few
additional months to enable us to
check whether our conclusions
will last the test of time,” he said.
“We are also mindful of the G20
target. We have been reminded of
that many times over the last few
years, and we intend to try to finish
this convergence program by the
end of 2011.”
He and Seidman said that they
needed the extra time to incorpo-
rate the feedback that they had re-
ceived on the exposure drafts of the
proposed standards and to hone
the standards in response.
Seidman and Tweedie did not
provide a firm date for the work
on the four standards. However,
according to a FASB spokesman,
the two boards expected to issue an
updated progress report that will
lay out the plans for completion of
the revenue recognition, leasing,
financial instruments and insurance projects. The progress report
will also include the remaining issues to be addressed by FASB and
the IASB, and the type of outreach
that will be conducted for additional input on the final standards. AT
