Revised 8/14/08—See below

Action Alert No. 08-33
August 14, 2008

NOTICE OF MEETINGS

OPEN BOARD MEETING
(Board meetings are available by audio webcast and telephone.)

No Board meetings are planned for the week of August 18, 2008. The next scheduled Board meeting is Wednesday, August 27, 2008, and will be announced in next week's issue of Action Alert.

OPEN EDUCATION SESSION

No education sessions are planned for the week of August 18, 2008. The next scheduled education session is Wednesday, August 27, 2008, and will be announced in next week's issue of Action Alert.

BOARD ACTIONS

The Board Actions are provided for the information and convenience of constituents who want to follow the Board's deliberations. All of the conclusions reported are tentative and may be changed at future Board meetings. Decisions are included in an Exposure Draft for formal comment only after a formal written ballot. Decisions in an Exposure Draft may be (and often are) changed in redeliberations based on information provided to the Board in comment letters, at public roundtable discussions, and through other communication channels. Decisions become final only after a formal written ballot to issue a final Statement, Interpretation, FSP, or Statement 133 Implementation Issue.

August 6, 2008 Board Meeting

Disclosures about credit derivatives. The Board redeliberated issues related to the scope, disclosures, and effective date of proposed FSP FAS 133-b and FIN 45-c, Disclosures about Credit Derivatives and Certain Guarantees: An Amendment of FASB Statement No. 133 and FASB Interpretation No. 45.

The Board decided not to expand the FSP's scope to include all financial instruments or credit-risk-related guarantees that are outside the scope of FASB Statement No. 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities, or FASB Interpretation No. 45, Guarantor's Accounting and Disclosure Requirement for Guarantees, Including Indirect Guarantees of Indebtedness of Others.

The Board clarified that a derivative with multiple underlyings is within the FSP's scope if one (or more) of its underlyings exposes the seller/writer to significant potential loss from credit-risk-related events specified in the contract. The Board also clarified that the FSP's scope includes a credit derivative embedded in a hybrid instrument.

With respect to an entity's disclosure about a credit derivative's or guarantee's current status of payment/performance risk, the Board decided not to express a preference (for example, a higher level in a hierarchy) for the use of external credit ratings when compared to internal groupings in the way the entity manages its risk. The Board decided to include in the FSP some guidance on how an entity should group similar credit derivatives in complying with its disclosure requirements.

The Board decided to retain the effective date in the proposed FSP. Accordingly, the final FSP will be effective for the first reporting period (annual or interim) ending after November 15, 2008.

The Board also decided to include a clarification about the effective date of FASB Statement No. 161, Disclosures about Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities, in the final FSP. The clarification would emphasize that the disclosures required by Statement 161 should be provided for the first reporting period (annual or interim) that begins after November 15, 2008.

The Board directed the staff to proceed to a draft of a final FSP for vote by written ballot.

FUTURE OPEN MEETINGS

The following is a list of open meetings tentatively scheduled through September. Because schedules may change, please check the FASB calendar before finalizing your plans. Revisions to this list since the last issue of Action Alert are highlighted in bold.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008—FASB Board Meeting
Wednesday, August 27, 2008—FASB Education Session
Wednesday, September 3, 2008—FASB Board Meeting
Wednesday, September 3, 2008—FASB Education Session
Monday, September 8, 2008—Liabilities and Equity Roundtable Meeting
Wednesday, September 10, 2008—FASB Board Meeting
Wednesday, September 10, 2008—Emerging Issues Task Force Meeting
Monday, September 15, 2008—Liaison Meeting with the AICPA Private Companies Practice Section, Technical Issues Committee
Wednesday, September 17, 2008—FASB Education Session
Thursday, September 18, 2008—FASB Board Meeting
Monday, September 22, 2008—Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council Meeting
Tuesday, September 23, 2008—Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council Meeting
Wednesday, September 24, 2008—FASB Board Meeting
Wednesday, September 24, 2008—Contingency Disclosures Roundtable, p.m. (Revised 8/14/08—This Roundtable will be rescheduled)