FASB staff presented, by video link, the issue of the comment period and effective date for both the business combinations and non controlling interests Exposure Drafts.

Normally, comment periods for IASB exposure drafts have been 90 days, with 20 days given to non English speaking countries in order to give them time to translate the drafts. However, the complexity of the ED and the time of year it is issued (to take into account holidays) may lead to a shorter or longer period. After some discussion, the Board tentatively agreed the comment period for Business Combinations should be 120 days, which would include the 20 days for countries to translate the standard. The FASB tentatively agreed that this would work, and could do the same for the non-controlling interests document.

With regards to the effective date, this was the subject of some discussion. The proposed deadline for a finalised standard is June 2006, and the effective date of 1/1/07 was considered. However, one board member felt 6 months was too long a lead time, and another thought this would not be a good message to be sending out. Another proposal was that the effective date should follow fiscal years, however, one board member pointed out that it is impossible to predict when the deliberations would conclude, and when a standard would be finalised, and therefore suggested that it would be better to include in the draft an effective date of X months after the issuance of the standard.

The Board tentatively agreed to include an effective date of 3 to 6 months after issuance of the standard.