The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) released a white paper last week describing how the information needs of individuals and organizations interested in the financial performance of state and local governments differ from those following the financial performance of for-profit businesses. According to the GASB, these diverse needs result from basic environmental differences between governments and businesses. The primary purpose of governments is to enhance or maintain the well being of citizens by providing services in accordance with the public policy goals.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have commissioned a survey concerning the trend toward requiring or allowing more financial instruments to be measured at fair value. The FASB/IASB survey seeks to address whether current reporting standards provide enough information for investors and creditors to analyze companies that report any financial instruments at fair value.

“This past year, we positioned ourselves to leverage all the positive events in the marketplace, and our business has never been better at the firm,” Thomas J. Marino, CEO of J.H.Cohn LLP said in a statement announcing that the firm’s revenues increased by 12 percent, from $128 million to $144 million, during the fiscal year ending January 31, 2006.

In a 1996 internal memo to Timothy Howard, Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae, Leanne Spencer, Vice President of Financial Reporting wrote, “What do I have up my sleeve to solve an earnings shortfall?” She adds in the same document, according to Bloomberg.com, “I recognize (and thought about it yesterday) that we might want to show the board $2.48. I made the decision that I wanted to show you the real answer and the let you decide if you wanted me to make any adjustment.

A Vancouver-based economic think tank has called for reform of the watchdogs overseeing the North American auditing industry.Advertisement

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) last week responded to the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) Off Balance Sheet Report by identifying forces causing complexity and impeding financial transparency, as well as providing an update on the FASB’s activities intended to address complex accounting standards.

Last week the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued FASB Staff Position (FSP) No. FAS 123(R)-4:Classification of Options and Similar Instruments Issued as Employee Compensation That Allow for Cash Settlement upon the Occurrence of a Contingent Event. The guidance in this FSP amends paragraphs 32 and A229 of FASB Statement No.

In seeking a new manager for its Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) database, the Securities and Exchange Commission has widely opened the door for that system to use the eXtensible Business Reporting Markup Language (XBRL) software code being developed by an accounting profession-led group.

As regional bell companies like Verizon and AT&T begin commercial rollouts of Internet Provided TV (IPTV) services that bundle telephony, video and internet, the Internet Protocol Detail Record Organization (IPDR.org) an industry consortium, has announced a new initiative to standardize accounting and settlement practices. IPDR.org says on its Web site that the telecommunications industry cannot use the accounting and billing information standards (e.g. CDR) that were “designed for yesterday’s services” for this next generation of services.