FASB, IASB To Re-Expose Leasing ED

At their joint board meeting last week, the FASB and IASB announced they have decided to formally re-expose their proposal for a common leasing standard.

In my view (see disclaimer posted on right side of this blog) this decision will be viewed as very responsive to concerns voiced by preparers and others about the need for the standard-setters to release a revised exposure draft - reflecting all the changes made during redeliberation of the original exposure draft in response to comment letters received. See, e.g. our prior posts, Preparers concerned about change in direction of FASB, IASB leasing proposal, and FEI, Applauding FASB-IASB Move For More Time on Convergence Projects, Calls For Reexposure of Remaining MOU Projects; SEC Announces IFRS Roundtable .

The objective of releasing a revised exposure draft of a proposed standard, in the eyes of FASB and the IASB's constituents, is two-fold: (1) to inform preparers, auditors, users of financial statements and others of the changes made to the original exposure draft, by seeing the most up-to-date version of the exposure draft, and (2) given the significant changes made during redeliberation of the original exposure draft, to allow public comment on the latest version of the exposure draft which incorporates those significant changes.

Said another way, in the words of FASB and the IASB, the decision to re-expose the leasing standard is because:

Even through the boards have not completed all of their deliberations, the decisions taken to date were sufficiently different from those published in the exposure draft to warrant re-exposure of the revised proposals.

As to timing, the revised ED (exposure draft) is expected to be finalized during the 3rd quarter, 2011, "with a view to publishing a revised exposure draft shortly afterwards," according to the two boards.

Separately, as previously reported, FASB and the IASB intend to release a revised ED on their proposed standard on revenue recognition, with an expected release date of this quarter, for a 120-day comment period. (The length of the comment period on the upcoming leasing ED has not yet been determined.)

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