AICPA, FAF, NASBA ‘Blue-Ribbon’ Panel Seeking Written Submissions from Constituents

On Aug. 5, 2010, the AICPA/FAF/NASBA "Blue-Ribbon" Panel on Standard Setting for Private Companies announced it is seeking written input from constituents in the form of responses to seven questions.

Responses will assist the panel in discussing how accounting standards can best meet the needs of United States users of private company financial statements and making recommendations thereon to the Financial Accounting Foundation Board of Trustees.

Members of FEI’s Committee on Private Companies – Standards (CPC-S) serve on the Blue Ribbon Panel and encourage participation. Click here to respond. Responses are due on Sept. 15, 2010.

In the meantime, CPC-S continues to serves FEI’s private company members by filing comment letters and papers. Examples include:

·         On July 22, 2010, FEI commented to FASB on effective dates of standards for private companies. Because the panel decisions may render some of FASB's upcoming pronouncements inapplicable to private companies, the letter recommended that FASB defer for a minimum of three years the effective dates of all new accounting standards issued through 2012 (or beyond 2012, if the final convergence standards under the Memorandum of Understanding are issued beyond 2012).

·         On July 19, 2010, CPC-S filed a comment letter on the FASB Exposure Draft on the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting, The Reporting Entity.

·         On May 4, 2010, CPS-S released a working draft of a whitepaper entitled, "A Model Conceptual Framework for Private Company Accounting Standards."

·         On April 30, 2010, FEI's CPC-S filed a comment letter with FAF and FASB voicing concern about the pace of accounting standard-setting under the remaining time FASB-International Accounting Standards Board Memorandum of Understanding, which calls for close to a dozen new standards to be issued by 2011.

Contact cgraziano@financialexecutives.org for more information about CPC-S.