Yesterday, the FASB held an agenda prioritization meeting. Agenda decisions the Board made at the meeting are summarized below.

New Active Agenda Items

Accounting for Financial Instruments — Hedging

The FASB voted to move its current research project on hedge accounting to its active agenda. In deliberating the project, the FASB will discuss the following issues: (1) hedge effectiveness requirements, (2) component hedging, (3) possible elimination of the shortcut and critical-terms-match methods, (4) voluntary dedesignation of hedging relationships, (5) recognition of ineffectiveness for cash flow underhedges, (6) benchmark interest rates, (7) simplification of hedge documentation requirements, and (8) presentation and disclosure matters.

Liabilities and Equity — Short-Term Improvements

The FASB voted to move part of its current research project on liabilities and equity to its active agenda. Specifically, the FASB decided to add a project addressing (1) practice issues related to ASC 815-40¹ and targeted improvements to the organization of the related Codification topics and (2) the indefinite deferral in ASC 480 for certain mandatorily redeemable noncontrolling interests issued by certain nonpublic entities. On a future date, the FASB will consider adding to its agenda a project related to convertible instruments.

Accounting for Identifiable Intangible Assets in a Business Combination for Public Business Entities and Not-for-Profit Entities

The FASB voted to add to its active agenda a project related to the accounting for identifiable intangible assets in a business combination. In deliberating the project, the FASB will perform additional research and analysis focusing on the accounting for (1) customer-related intangibles and (2) noncompetition agreements.

New EITF Issues

Application of the Normal Purchases and Normal Sales Scope Exception to Certain Electricity Contracts in Nodal Energy Markets

The FASB voted to add to the EITF’s agenda a new Issue that would address whether the normal purchases and normal sales scope exception in ASC 815 applies to certain electricity contracts for physical delivery in nodal energy markets.

Recognition of Breakage for No-Cash Prepaid Cards

The FASB voted to add to the EITF’s agenda a new Issue that would address “whether and how breakage for no-cash prepaid cards would be recognized under the new FASB/IASB revenue recognition standard.”

Employee Benefit Plans

The FASB voted to add to the EITF’s agenda a new Issue that would address the following topics related to employee benefit plan accounting: (1) differences between the level of detail provided under the ASC 820 fair value measurement disclosure requirements and that provided under the disclosure requirements in the Codification topics on plan accounting (ASC 960, ASC 962, and ASC 965), (2) discrepancies in the requirements for disaggregating assets within those disclosures, and (3) inconsistencies between the measurement requirements in ASC 820 and those in the Codification topics on plan accounting with respect to fully benefit-responsive investment contracts.

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1 For titles of FASB Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) references, see Deloitte’s “Titles of Topics and Subtopics in the FASB Accounting Standards Codification.”