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Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)

Background

Since 1973, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has been the designated organisation in the private sector for establishing standards of financial accounting and reporting in the United States of America. Those standards govern the preparation of financial reports. They are officially recognised as authoritative by the Securities and Exchange Commission (Financial Reporting Release No. 1, Section 101) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (Rule 203, Rules of Professional Conduct, as amended May 1973 and May 1979).

The stated mission of the Financial Accounting Standards Board is to establish and improve standards of financial accounting and reporting for the guidance and education of the public, including issuers, auditors, and users of financial information.

FASB Codification

Effective 1 July 2009, the FASB reorganised its standards into the FASB Codification. The Codification is an online research system representing the single source of authoritative nongovernmental US GAAP. Subscriptions to the FASB Codification are available in two ways:

  • Professional view, which provides topically organised access to all authoritative nongovernmental US GAAP, including relevant SEC content, with a wide range of supporting utilities including text searching, cross-references, and access to previous versions of content. Annual subscription is US$850 for a single concurrent use. Accounting educators and students can get free access.
  • Basic view, which provides topically organised access to all authoritative nongovernmental US GAAP, including relevant SEC content, with limited supporting utilities. Available at no charge.

The FASB Codification may be accessed at http://asc.fasb.org/.

Standards as issued prior to codification

The FASB standards that were superseded by the Codification are still available on line, without charge, here.

Contact information

Financial Accounting Standards Board
401 Merritt 7 P.O. Box 5116
Norwalk, CT 06856-5116
United States of America
Telephone: +1 (203) 847-0700
Facsimile: +1 (203) 849-9714
Email: techinq @ fasb.org
Website: http://www.fasb.org

 

 

Related news

  • June 2013 IASB meeting notes — Part 1

  • Jun 19, 2013

  • The IASB's meeting was held in London on 18-19 June 2013, some of it a joint meeting with the FASB. We have posted Deloitte observer notes from Tuesday's joint session on classification and measurement.

  • FASB endorses three PCC proposals

  • Jun 10, 2013

  • The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has voted to approve three proposed alternatives by the Private Company Council (PCC) to improve financial reporting for private companies within US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

  • FASB issues amendments concerning investment companies

  • Jun 07, 2013

  • The FASB has issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2013-08, ‘Financial Services—Investment Companies (Topic 946): Amendments to the Scope, Measurement, and Disclosure Requirements’. The ASU clarifies the characteristics for determining whether a public or private company is an investment company and sets measurement and disclosure requirements for an investment company.

  • SEC representatives stress importance of international standard-setting

  • Jun 02, 2013

  • In speeches delivered at the 32th Annual SEC and Financial Reporting Institute Conference in Pasadena, Paul A. Beswick, the Chief Accountant at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the SEC's Commissioner Elisse B. Walter spoke about why the U.S. needs a strong IASB and on the topic of high-quality financial reporting.

  • Russell Golden outlines priorities for the FASB

  • May 31, 2013

  • In a speech delivered at the 32th Annual SEC and Financial Reporting Institute Conference in Pasadena, California on 30 May, upcoming Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Chairman Russell Golden presented his views on the FASB’s current and future tasks.

  • FASB responds to post-implementation review of business combinations accounting

  • May 31, 2013

  • The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued a response that evaluates the outcome of the Financial Accounting Foundation’s (FAF) Post-Implementation Review (PIR) of FASB Statement No 141(R), ‘Business Combinations’ (codified in FASB Accounting Standards Codification, Topic 805).

  • May 2013 IASB meeting notes — Part 3

  • May 24, 2013

  • The IASB's meeting was held in London on 21-24 May 2013. We have posted Deloitte observer notes from Wednesday's session on novation of derivatives and continuation of hedge accounting (IAS 39); Thursday's sessions on macro hedge accounting and revenue recognition; and Friday's joint IASB/FASB session on revenue recognition.

  • Outcomes from United States review of business combination accounting

  • May 23, 2013

  • The United States Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) has announced the completion of its post-implementation review of FASB Statement No. 141 (revised 2007), 'Business Combinations' (Statement 141R). The review found that Statement 141R resolved some of the issues associated with the purchase method of accounting for business combinations, that its principles and requirements generally are understandable and can be applied as intended, and that investors generally find the resulting information to be useful. However, the review also noted a number of other issues and makes a number of recommendations for improvements to FASB's standard-setting process.

  • US SEC adopts the 2013 US GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy

  • May 22, 2013

  • The Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) have announced that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted the 2013 US GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy.

  • IASB publishes highly anticipated lease accounting proposals

  • May 16, 2013

  • The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has re-exposed its proposed approach for the recognition and measurement of leases. For lessees, the Exposure Draft ED/2013/6 'Leases' proposes the recognition of a liability and a right-of-use asset for all leases with a profit or loss impact dependent on the classification of a lease. The lessor model in the ED is similar to current lease accounting with some nuances for the recognition of revenue and discounting of the residual asset. The proposals are only applicable for leases with a lease term of more than 12 months. Comments are due 13 September 2013.

  • Stakeholders are asked to provide input into the FASB's future agenda

  • May 13, 2013

  • The Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC), the FASB's primary advisory group, has issued a survey to solicit stakeholder views about the FASB’s future agenda. The FASB will consider the input received through the survey as well as input received from other sources when deciding which projects to add to its technical agenda. Certain projects suggested could lead to further convergence between US GAAP and IFRSs.

  • FASB upcoming webcast for nonpublic entities

  • May 10, 2013

  • The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) will be holding a webcast on 5 June 2013 to provide an update on the FASB’s standard-setting activities in regards to private companies and not-for-profit (NFP) organizations.

  • PCC proposes alternatives to US GAAP for private companies

  • May 08, 2013

  • The Private Company Council (PCC) has voted to approve proposed alternatives to improve financial reporting for private companies within US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). This is the first step in the process towards endorsement by the FASB.

  • FASB proposes technical corrections to Codification master glossary

  • May 06, 2013

  • The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued a proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU), 'Technical Corrections and Improvements Related to Glossary Terms', that would make certain minor modifications and clarifications to the Master Glossary in the FASB Accounting Standards Codification (the “Codification”).

  • Russell Golden named next FASB Chair

  • Apr 23, 2013

  • The Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) has announced that the next Chair of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) will be Russell G. Golden. Effective 1 July 2013, Mr Golden will be succeeding the current Chair Leslie F. Seidman.

  • FASB podcast on proposed impairment model

  • Apr 17, 2013

  • The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has made available a podcast which provides a detailed overview of the FASB's Proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 'Financial Instruments—Credit Losses'.

  • FASB updates proposed private company decision-making framework

  • Apr 16, 2013

  • The United States Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Private Company Council (PCC) have issued an updated Invitation to Comment on the private company decision-making framework. The goal of the Invitation to Comment is to assist the FASB and the PCC to ultimately develop a guide that can be use in determining whether and in what circumstances to provide alternative recognition, measurement, disclosure, display, effective date, or transition guidance for private companies reporting under US GAAP.

  • FASB proposes amendments to discontinued operations

  • Apr 02, 2013

  • The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued Proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 'Presentation of Financial Statements (Topic 205): Reporting Discontinued Operations'. The proposal intends to improve financial reporting concerning discontinued operations and significantly converge the definition of discontinued operation with IFRS 5.

  • ASAF membership announced

  • Mar 19, 2013

  • The IFRS Foundation has announced the membership of the newly founded Accounting Standards Advisory Forum (ASAF) that is designed to formalise and streamline the relationships between the IFRS Foundation and IASB with the global standard-setting community, in order to bring important regional perspectives to the IASB’s technical work and to offer feedback on the most important issues of the day.

  • Summary of redeliberations in the revenue recognition project

  • Mar 13, 2013

  • An updated staff summary of redeliberations in the revenue recognition project has been made available on the IASB's website, outlining the decisions made by the IASB and FASB in redeliberations since the issue of ED/2011/6 'Revenue from Contracts with Customers' in 2011. As all substantive redeliberations are now complete, the staff will now commence drafting the final revenue standard, which is currently expected to be finalised before the end of June.

  • Discontinued Operations — FASB Decides to Issue Exposure Draft

  • Mar 13, 2013

  • At its March 13 meeting, the FASB decided to issue an exposure draft on reporting discontinued operations by the end of the first quarter of 2013. The proposal would substantially converge the definition of a discontinued operation under ASC 205-20 with that under IFRS 5 and would expand the disclosure requirements for disposals, including disclosures about significant components that do not qualify as discontinued operations.

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