I see that FASB is sticking to its schedule for ending most off-balance-sheet treatment for leases, and so is the IASB. It's about time, frankly, if only to spare us poor, I mean, intrepid financial journalists from having to sort through the particulars of the current accounting treatment a moment longer than necessary.

I speak from personal experience here, having wrestled with the false distinction between capital and operating leases for a sidebar to a piece I wrote for CFO Magazine way back when. The article delved into the details of a particularly complex variation that companies were using to finance real estate, called synthetic leases.

Submitted by Caleb Newquist, republished from Going Concern, Accounting News for Accountants and CFOs.

Earlier in the week we heard the devastating news that the FASB and IASB's convergence efforts, despite a good hustle, would not meet the G20's deadline of June 2011.

When it comes to convergence of accounting standards between the US and the rest of the world, it's often one step forward, two steps back.

Last week, as part of global convergence, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board released a joint proposal to change accounting and reporting of financial instruments and the statement of comprehensive income. It was the first of a series of joint proposals to come from the two boards by the third quarter of 2010, representing an important push toward global accounting convergence.

A blue ribbon panel on private company accounting is holding its inaugural meeting Monday, to assess how financial reporting standards can best meet the needs of users of US private company financial statements, which are mostly for bankers and other types of lenders.

The panel, formed by the Financial Accounting Foundation, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, will meet five times throughout the year and will issue a report with recommendations on the future of standard setting for private companies by the end of the year.

Submitted by Adrienne Gonzalez, republished from Going Concern, Accounting News for Accountants and CFOs.

Ed. Note: This is the second installment of Going Concern's dialogue with experts on International Financial Reporting Standards. See their first post with IFAC President Bob Bunting here and if you are an IFRS expert interested in joining the discussion, please contact them at [email protected]

It's appropriate to disclaim that The Summa's Professor David Albrecht is a friend of Going Concern and for the most part he and I share similar views on the US conversion to IFRS. If you have not read any of our previous rants on the subject, you're too far behind to catch up but I might suggest this?

Our editorial partner, Going Concern, has a post up today on convergence of global accounting standards that encouraged me to take a closer look at what the SEC had to say last week, when it decided to add another year at minimum to the transition period before US companies would be required to report their results according to international rules. (Now it will be 2015 at the earliest.)

I certainly agree that convergence may be a pipe dream, but not for the reason that Adrienne Gonzalez focuses on. Yes, cost may be an issue. But from what I see in the SEC statement, what really raised the commission's eyebrows were complaints about how easily the International Accounting Standards Board caved to political pressure during the financial crisis to ease its fair value reporting rules for banks.

Submitted by Caleb Newquist, republished from Going Concern, Accounting News for Accountants and CFOs.

Remember how James Kroeker said how the Commission was "turning our focus back to the proposed roadmap"? No? Well, he did. And apparently he was serious because the SEC is having a meeting tomorrow about said roadmap. The whole time we've been reading about this map to godknowswhere, we just figured it was a figment of our imagination.

But a meeting! A meeting to decide whether or not the SEC will publish a statement! That's somewhat encouraging, isn't it? Here's exactly what's on the docket for the Sunshine Act Meeting:

Submitted by Adrienne Gonzalez, republished from Going Concern, Accounting News for Accountants and CFOs.

Tim Geithner has inadvertently given his endorsement to standardized financial regulation around the globe, so is he also giving the adoption of IFRS in the US his approval?

Possibly, since he told ABC that "he wasn't worried that tighter financial regulation would put U.S. banks at an international disadvantage. ‘I'm very confident we can make sure that we are working very closely to raise global standards around the world so we have a level playing field,' Geithner said." His motivations are only slightly suspect. Why?

Submitted by Francine McKenna, republished from Going Concern, Accounting News for Accountants and CFOs.

It's sort of sweet to see the CEOs of the Big 4 audit firms being treated like big deals at Davos. In the U.S., the media typically pays no attention to these guys unless there's either a catastrophic accounting related failure - and the recent crisis is not being viewed as such by the media - or some icky accounting issue like mark-to-market or IFRS that necessitates an interview with some accountant. Any accountant.