Corporate & Securities Blog

On October 27, 2010, the Financial Accounting Standards Board met to further discuss the timeline for adoption of its Exposure Draft of a proposed Statement, Contingencies (Topic 450), Disclosure of Certain Loss Contingencies.  For an overview of this Exposure Draft and the events leading up to its issuance, please see our previous blog on this subject.

At the meeting the FASB decided that a final standard will not be effective for the 2010 calendar year-end reporting period and that an effective date will be decided upon at a future meeting.  This is contrary to the FASB’s proposal under the Exposure Draft that public companies would begin providing enhanced disclosures in financial statements for fiscal years ending after December 15, 2010.  The FASB did not address the effective date for nonpublic companies at this meeting, which under the Exposure Draft is to occur one year after the effective date for public companies.  It is likely; however, that this modification to the adoption timeline for public companies will also affect the timeline for adoption with respect to nonpublic companies.

We will continue to monitor developments with respect to Topic 450, the Exposure Draft and its effective date.