Postcard from the AICPA SEC Conference - Part 3

Day two of the AICPA Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments from Washington, DC continued with remarks from the chairs of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), as well as updates from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Division of Corporation Finance (CorpFin), SEC Division of Enforcement and the PCAOB. 

Members of CorpFin discussed the Disclosure Effectiveness Project to improve the disclosure regime based on the requirements of Regulations S-X and S-K.  CorpFin also discussed areas the division continues to issue comment letters, including transition disclosures on recent accounting pronouncements, non-GAAP measures, segment reporting, income taxes, and internal control over financial reporting (ICFR).

Russell Golden, Chairman of the FASB, discussed the five priorities the FASB has focused on during this three-year tenure as chairman: improvement, implementation, inclusion, ideals and international.  Mr. Goldman also discussed the efforts on convergence with the IASB, including the completion of the revenue and leasing standards.

Hans Hoogervorst, Chairman of the IASB, reflected on the convergence efforts, noting the IASB will continue to stay closely aligned with the FASB on future standards-setting agendas.  Mr. Hoogervorst also commented that the IASB is currently working on updating financial statement presentation to have companies provide more disaggregation in performance reporting.

Day two closed with a panel on revenue recognition, with members of industry and in public practice discussing transition considerations.  The key theme noted by all members on the panel is for companies to document the work being done in this area, including accounting decisions made and its consideration of changes on ICFR.

Please visit the Our Thoughts On blog to read more of our updates from the AICPA SEC Conference.