Tentative Board Decisions

Tentative Board decisions are provided for those interested in following the Board’s deliberations. All of the reported decisions are tentative and may be changed at future Board meetings.

Wednesday, July 15, 2020 FASB Board Meeting

Identifiable intangible assets and subsequent accounting for goodwill. The Board discussed the feedback received from its July 2019 Invitation to Comment, Identifiable Intangible Assets and Subsequent Accounting for Goodwill, supplemental outreach performed by the staff, and the November 2019 public roundtables.

The Board discussed the general direction of the project. Based on that discussion, the staff plans to:
  1. Explore adding amortization to the goodwill impairment model, including the amortization method and period.
  2. Explore other changes to the goodwill impairment model.
  3. Consider the accounting for identifiable intangible assets.
  4. Address presentation, disclosure, and transition.

Segment reporting. The Board discussed the investor feedback summary and the plan for deliberations. The Board directed the staff to discontinue future work on two issues:
  1. Clarifying the meaning of the term regularly provided segment information.
  2. Permitting the disclosure of multiple segment performance measures.
Next Steps

The Board discussed potentially developing a principle-based disclosure requirement that would require public entities to disclose significant segment expense categories by reportable segment. That requirement could be based on the perspective of information regularly provided to the chief operating decision maker or based on other alternatives. The staff will provide an analysis of different ways to develop the requirement for discussion at a future Board meeting.


Open discussion: post-implementation review. The staff updated the Board on the high-level plans for post-implementation review (PIR) discussed during the June 2020 Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council meeting. More information about this discussion can be found in the FASAC meeting materials, and in the future, there will be a dedicated PIR webpage on the FASB website.

The staff also provided updates on PIR for three standards:
  1. Revenue—The staff continues to conduct outreach related to the revenue standard, including recent work with respect to franchisor fees and the effective date deferral of Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, for certain entities.
  2. Leases—The Board recently deferred the effective date of Topic 842, Leases, for certain entities. At the end of July, the staff plans to bring a series of issues to the Board for consideration to address targeted improvements related to feedback received during outreach. Additionally, the staff is planning to hold a public roundtable, which will include a cross-section of stakeholders, in September.
  3. Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL)—The staff has begun the PIR process by listening to calls on first-quarter earnings, reading 10-Q filings, and collecting data from banks that have adopted the standard. The staff also has conducted outreach with users, preparers, practitioners, regulators, and other interested parties. These efforts will continue throughout the remainder of the year.
Next Steps

At the Board meeting at the end of July, the staff will provide its detailed plans and efforts with respects to PIR.