Our member companies are extremely concerned with the 10+ Exposure Drafts (EDs) that are in final stages and will be released for public comment through the third quarter of 2010. During any single period in time in its 38-year history, the FASB has had no more than 3 or 4 significant EDs out for public comment. Moreover, it would be reasonable to characterize a majority of the historical exposure documents as evolutionary proposals rather than the more fundamental changes in accounting and reporting paradigms as are proposed in the forthcoming EDs. In addition, there are numerous interdependencies among the standards that further complicate the analysis.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to decide on the use of IFRSs for US public entities sometime next year. In the meantime, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have been working both individually and jointly on a number of projects that, if finalized, would bring about a seismic shift in the accounting and financial reporting landscape, the likes of which US entities have never before experienced.

After another long week of joint meetings during the month of April, the Insurance Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) have prepared the ground for a last attempt to resolve the major disagreements between them. Officially moving the date of the exposure draft (ED) publication to June was the price to pay for the divergence in opinions between the Boards. The Boards did manage to make some progress and many important decisions have been reached. However, in our opinion, the complexity of the remaining issues still makes the June deadline look optimistic.