Financial Accounting Standards Research Initiative

Mark DeFond of the University of Southern California presented a paper here at UT-Austin last week. It is neat as it deals with a basic concept .. that is, comparability. HOW FUNDAMENTAL IS THAT? EXACTLY! VERY. Title of paper: The Impact of Mandatory IFRS Adoption on Foreign Mutual Fund Ownership: [...] Read more > >

From the Telegraph, and quoted without comment: Iain Richards, of Aviva Investors, told the Lords that the IFRS system of auditing the banks had had “a material cost to the taxpayer and to shareholders” because “as a result dividend distributions have been made and bonuses have been paid that were imprudent”. Mr Richards said: “The IFRS (system) [...] Read more > >

From the FASB website: Financial Accounting Foundation Appoints Daryl E. Buck and R. Harold Schroeder to the Financial Accounting Standards Board Norwalk, CT, January 14, 2011—The Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) today announced the appointments of Daryl E. Buck and R. Harold (Hal) Schroeder to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). Mr. Buck is currently Senior Vice President [...] Read more > >

JP Morgan sent around a report on a change in pension accounting at Honeywell last November.  Honeywell had been following the traditional procedure of amortizing any accumulated pension gains or losses that lay outside of the corridor over the average remaining service life of employees.  The company decided to stop amortizing – any gain or [...] Read more > >

In theory the PCAOB Board is made up of 5 members, with staggered 5-year terms. In practice . . . still working on that staggering bit. The SEC recently appointed James Doty as a PCAOB board member and as the new Chairperson. Daniel Goelzez, who has been acting chairman since Mark Olson [...] Read more > >

Many papers have been written on the “kink” in the earnings distribution, which exhibits surprisingly few small negative realizations, and surprisingly many realizations at or just above zero.  Let the financial reporting researchers argue about whether the kink is statistically robust or whether it reflects earnings management (operational or otherwise).  Managerial accountants Indjejikian, Matejka, Merchant [...] Read more > >

We have a unique opportunity to (hopefully) have some impact on the future of standard setting. The IFRS Foundation oversees the International Accounting Standards Board. The Foundation has issued a call for comments on its strategy review. Click here to see comment letters received to date and instructions for submitting a comment letter. This provides an [...] Read more > >

Did you know that you can watch the FASB board meetings live? There’s one today at 10:15am (ET). Learn more here. Read more > >

Yesterday the PCAOB announced that they are seeking applicants for an academic fellow for the 2011-2012 academic year. Read more > >

Are you familiar with Research in Accounting Regulation, an Elsevier Journal?  Editor-in-Chief Gary Previts and Manuscript Editor Stephen Moehrle have put together an issue worth looking at.  The lead article by Holhbeck and Warfield analyzes the attributes of recent accounting standards, and Greg Jonas, along with Stephen Moehrle and Jennifer Reynolds-Moehrle summarize academic research published [...] Read more > >