Canada’s Accounting Standards Board said that it has not yet made a decision on whether to change its fair value standards to match up with U.S. standards.
Last week, under pressure from Congress, the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board voted to make changes in its standards for fair value and mark-to-market accounting to give financial institutions more flexibility in how to value illiquid assets such as mortgage-backed securities (see
However, the Canadian board noted that the details of the new U.S. rules have not yet been released, and it is also waiting to see what the International Accounting Standards Board decides to do about fair value. Before the FASB vote, the IASB had distributed FASB’s proposed staff positions on changes to fair value standards to its own members for comment. The IASB is scheduled to discuss the responses it has received in a meeting scheduled for April 23-24. The European Commission is already pushing for changes in the fair value standards.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Accounting Standards Board plans to hold a special meeting later this month to consider whether to propose changes in fair value standards. The AcSB said that it would make a decision on whether to propose any revisions to financial reporting standards in Canada on the use of fair values and impairment of debt securities when all of the necessary information is available to make an informed and responsible choice.
“Once we have the final wording from FASB on their revisions and information that will come out of the IASB’s meetings, we will have the information we need,” said AcSB chair Paul Cherry (pictured) in a statement. “If the board decides to change the standards, we will be ready to issue an exposure draft quickly and allow all of our stakeholders to provide feedback on the proposals and ensure that due process is respected.”
