The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a report Wednesday summarizing the feedback it received last year on the projects it should pursue in the future.
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FASB asked stakeholders last year to share their views on where they think it should focus its resources to best fulfill its mission, and the board has decided as a consequence to add projects on digital assets, environmental credits and software costs to its technical agenda.
Other projects were added to the research agenda so FASB staff can conduct research on whether the board should add further projects to its technical agenda. The research agenda now includes projects on exchange-traded commodities; accounting for financial instruments with environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-linked features; hedge accounting and potential changes to the definition of a derivative; accounting for government grants; consolidation for business entities; financial key performance indicators (KPIs) for business entities; and the statement of cash flows.
“While the feedback from all of our stakeholder groups was tremendous, the increased participation of investors in our process has already shaped our agenda,” wrote FASB chair Richard Jones and technical director Hillary Salo in their introduction to the report. “The top seven most frequently cited investor priorities are now included on either our technical agenda or are undergoing further analysis as part of our research agenda.”
The report acknowledged that investor feedback helped FASB define a new path forward on the financial performance reporting project, revising its objective and scope to focus on disaggregation of income statement expenses. Investor input also helped focus FASB’s long-term project to improve the transparency and usefulness of income tax disclosures by revising its objective and establishing a project scope that primarily focuses on income taxes paid and the rate reconciliation table.
FASB plans continue to consider agenda requests as part of its regular standard-setting process, and Jones and Salo thanked stakeholders for their engagement on the agenda consultation project while encouraging them to share their views on these and other projects and financial reporting issues as they develop.
