FASB Chairman Testimony to U.S. House Committee

On 28 March 2012, Leslie Seidman, Chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, provided testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises. During the testimony, Ms. Seidman covered a wide range of topics and outlined possible completion dates for a number of joint IASB-FASB projects.

Ms. Seidman provided a summary of the role, mission and oversight of the FASB, provided an outline of the standard-setting process and its due process steps, and outlined recently completed and pending projects of the FASB.

In discussing the four key IASB-FASB convergence projects, Ms. Seidman noted:

o Revenue - Based on the current plan, Ms. Seidman expects the issue of a converged new standard in the first quarter of 2013 (depending on constituent feedback)

o Leases - Ms. Seidman noted constituent concerns about the income statement effects resulting from the proposed right-of-use model, the additional outreach activities being undertaken in various areas, and an expectation of a final standard in mid-2013

o Financial instruments - Ms. Seidman discussed the various components of this project, differences in views between the FASB and IASB, and discussed the FASB project on repurchase agreements (repos)

o Insurance - Ms. Seidman noted the FASB and the IASB are at different points in the process on the insurance contracts project, as the FASB has not issued an exposure draft (which is expected in the second half of 2012).

Ms Seidman also discussed the wider calls for convergence, private company accounting, not-for-profit accounting, the FASB codification, XBRL, and the FASB's joint project with EFRAG on developing a disclosure framework to address constituent concerns about disclosure overload or, often, disclosure ineffectiveness.