Financial Accounting Standards Research Initiative

I always enjoy listening to the State of the Union address. If you missed it, I highly recommend at least reading a summary like the one found here. One of the things that President Obama proposed was that congress “provide a tax incentive for all large businesses and all small businesses to invest in new plants [...] Read more > >

On Wednesday, Feb 3rd, 11 am ET, we will be joined by Steven Orpurt of Pepperdine University. Steve will be discussing his paper, entitled “Do Direct Cash Flow Disclosures Help Predict Future Operating Cash Flows and Earnings? This work is co-authored with Yoonseok Zang, also of Singapore Management University, and was recently published in [...] Read more > >

Wow, i just learned the following.  Did not know this … From:  Comment from Michael A. Moran and Abby Joseph Cohen, Goldman Sachs: Global Markets Institute – Accounting Policy Update: SEC takes action on climate change disclosures On January 27, 2010 the SEC approved, by a 3-2 vote, new interpretative guidance on existing disclosure requirements related [...] Read more > >

To what extent do lenders or credit analysts care about lease renewal options? In the proposed lease accounting model, lessees will capitalize the longest lease term that is more likely than not to occur. This means that renewal periods that a lessee is not obligated to renew will be measured as part of the lease [...] 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 > >

Richard Mergenthaler has a paper on SSRN titled “Principles-Based versus Rules-Based Standards and Earnings Management.” When I read the title I thought for sure the article would argue that principles-based standards lead to more earnings management because there was more flexibility. To my surprise, the paper presents arguments that rules-based standards lead to more earnings management. [...] Read more > >

I was excited this past week to read that the IASB recently published a second exposure draft on a portion of IAS 37 Provisions, Contingent Liabilities, and Contingent Assets. I know, excitement might be too strong of a word, but I was looking forward to seeing whether the IASB’s decision on how to measure onerous [...] 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 > >

On Tuesday, January 12th we had a Round Table Event with Jim Leisenring from the IASB. To view the archived video and a brief summary of the event, click here. Additional information about Jim and this Round Table Event can be found here. Follow-up comments from this event can be found here. Read more > >

Stephen Ryan, Research on the Fair Value Option, Tuesday, 4pm ET * Update: You can read more about this Round Table Event and see the archived video here. Read more > >