The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s recently released technical plan reveals expectations of a heady year remaining, with a slew of exposure drafts and final drafts of proposals slated to be released. The following proposals and their status are listed according to their relevance to banks.

Business Combinations–Banks and other financial institutions appear to be those most opposed to FASB’s efforts to simplify and harmonize accounting for mergers and acquisitions. The board will be addressing the issue of when it is appropriate to use the pooling and purchase methods of accounting next week (See story on p.1). An exposure draft is anticipated in the third quarter.

Financial Instruments–The grand project to develop a standard to account for all financial instruments at fair value is still viewed as some way off, but bankers will have a chance to comment on the board’s early deliberations later this year. A document providing preliminary views is expected to be released for comment in the fourth quarter.

FAS 125 Amendment–Of most interest to credit card issuers, although also affecting repurchase agreements which banks use for funding, the proposed amendment to recently released FAS 125, accounting for transfers of assets, is expected to be released for comment in June.

Interpretation 25–Fine tuning the accounting for stock compensation, an exposure draft of the proposal was released for public comment March 31.

Consolidation–Dealing with the issue of control of affiliate companies, the longstanding and controversial proposal was recently issued in exposure draft form–comments due May 24–and is scheduled to come out as a final standard in the fourth quarter.

Asset Impairment and Disposal Issueso Addressing the accounting for the impairment and disposal of assets including bank branches, the proposal is now anticipated in exposure-draft form in the fourth quarter, bumped back a quarter from previous expectations.