SUMMARY OF BOARD DECISIONS

Summary of Board decisions 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 standard.

August 13, 2009 Board Meeting

Financial instruments—improvements to recognition and measurement.The Board discussed and made tentative decisions about how an entity would present financial instruments in the basic financial statements.

The Board decided that financial instruments whose fair value changes are recognized in net income should be separately presented on the balance sheet from those financial instruments whose fair value changes are recognized in other comprehensive income. The Board made the following additional decisions:

  1. For financial instruments whose fair value changes are recognized in net income:

    1. Entities would be required to present on the balance sheet the fair value amount. Entities would not be prohibited from presenting on the balance sheet or disclosing in the notes the amortized cost amount and the fair value adjustment amount related to the instruments in addition to the fair value amount.

    2. Entities would be required to present the amortized cost amount for own debt on the balance sheet.

    3. Entities would be required, at a minimum, to present separately on the income statement an aggregate amount for unrealized and realized gains or losses. Entities would not be prohibited from reporting interest accruals or credit losses as separate line items on the income statement.

  2. For financial instruments whose fair value changes are recognized in other comprehensive income:

    1. Entities would be required to present the cumulative credit losses as a separate line item on the face of the balance sheet for financial assets. The cumulative credit losses amount would be presented separately from the remainder of the fair value adjustment to reconcile the amortized cost amount to the fair value of the financial instrument.

    2. Entities would not be required to report foreign currency transaction gains or losses on a foreign-currency-denominated financial instrument as a separate line item on the income statement. Those changes in fair value would be required to be reported in other comprehensive income with other changes in fair value when the financial instrument is reported in the fair value through other comprehensive income category.

    3. Entities would not be required to provide additional information on further disaggregation of changes in fair value beyond (1) credit impairment, (2) interest accruals, and (3) the remainder (other residual changes in fair value).

  3. For an entity’s own debt for which the amortized cost option is elected, entities would be required to present separately on the income statement the interest accruals and any realized gains or losses.