SEC Updates Current Accounting and Disclosure Issues

On March 4, 2005, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) posted an update to its "Current Accounting and Disclosure Issues in the Division of Corporation Finance" (the "Current Issues" document). This document has been on the SEC website a few years; beginning this year, the SEC has noted "new" or "revised" as applicable next to new or revised sections of the document. Some of the new guidance incorporates guidance previously issued in the first quarter of 2005 in the form of SEC staff letters to industry dated February 14, 2005 on cash flow reporting and oil and gas reporting, as well as a letter from the SEC Chief Accountant to the AICPA dated February 7, 2005 regarding lease accounting and disclosure issues.)

The areas marked "new" or "revised" in the SEC's Current Issues document as of March 4, 2005 are listed below. (For a complete listing of all topics in the Current Issues document, click here.

Section I. Recent Rules, Proposed Rules and Interpretive Bulletins:

1. Final Rules Regarding Asset-Backed Securities (Revised)
2. Final Rules and Concept Release Regarding the Use of Tagged Data (Revised)
3. Management's Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting and Certification of Disclosure in Exchange Act Periodic Reports (Revised)

Section II: Other Current Accounting and Disclosure Issues

A. Statement of Cash Flows (New)

1. Classification of Cash Receipts from Inventory Sales
2. Classification of Payments Related to Settlement of Pension Liabilities

B. Oil and Gas (New)

C. Leasing (New)

1. Accounting
2. Disclosure

D. Revenue

F. Investments
   3. Auction Rate Securities (New)

H. Pension, Post Retirement, and Post Employment Plans

1. Selection of Discount Rates under FASB Statement Nos. 87 and 106 (New)

K. Issues Associated With SFAS 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities
   b. Formal Documentation Under Statement 133 (Revised)
   c. Financial Statement Presentation and Disclosure (Revised)

N. Loans and Other Receivables
   d. Loans Held for Sale (New)

O. Materiality Assessments and the Use of Sampling (New)

Prepared September 12, 2005, by Edith Orenstein, (eorenstein@fei.org), Manager of Research, Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) - the Research Affiliate of Financial Executives International (FEI). This summary does not represent FEI opinion, unless specifically noted above.

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