FASB ISSUES GUIDANCE TO IMPROVE FINANCIAL REPORTING OF GOING CONCERN UNCERTAINTIES

Norwalk, CT, August 27, 2014—The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) today issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2014-15, Presentation of Financial Statements—Going Concern (Subtopic 205-40): Disclosure of Uncertainties about an Entity´s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern. The Update is intended to define management´s responsibility to evaluate whether there is substantial doubt about an organization´s ability to continue as a going concern and to provide related footnote disclosures.

Under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), financial statements are prepared under the presumption that the reporting organization will continue to operate as a going concern, except in limited circumstances. Financial reporting under this presumption is commonly referred to as the going concern basis of accounting. The going concern basis of accounting is critical to financial reporting because it establishes the fundamental basis for measuring and classifying assets and liabilities.

Currently, GAAP lacks guidance about management´s responsibility to evaluate whether there is substantial doubt about the organization´s ability to continue as a going concern or to provide related footnote disclosures.

The Update provides guidance to an organization´s management, with principles and definitions that are intended to reduce diversity in the timing and content of disclosures that are commonly provided by organizations today in the financial statement footnotes.

"This Update responds to stakeholder concerns about the diversity that currently exists in footnote disclosures because of the lack of guidance in GAAP and the differing views in practice about when substantial doubt exists," said FASB Technical Director Susan M. Cosper. "It improves the comparability of these disclosures by providing guidance on when there is substantial doubt and how the underlying conditions and events should be disclosed in the footnotes."

The amendments in this Update apply to all companies and not-for-profit organizations. They become effective in the annual period ending after December 15, 2016, with early application permitted. The Update and a FASB In Focus document are available on the FASB website at www.fasb.org.

About the Financial Accounting Standards Board

Since 1973, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has been the designated organization in the private sector for establishing standards of financial accounting and reporting. Those standards govern the preparation of financial reports and are officially recognized as authoritative by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Such standards are essential to the efficient functioning of the economy because investors, creditors, auditors, and others rely on credible, transparent, and comparable financial information. For more information about the FASB, visit our website at http://www.fasb.org/.