FASB Proposes to Delay Certain Effective Dates for Private Companies, NFPs, and Small Public Companies

August 15, 2019

The FASB has issued a proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU), Effective Dates, which would give private companies, not-for-profit (NFP) entities, and certain small public companies additional time to implement the Board’s standards on current expected credit losses (CECL), hedging, and leases.

On the basis of input from the Private Company Council and Small Business Advisory Committee, the FASB has outlined a new philosophy under which it plans to extend and simplify effective dates for private companies, smaller public companies, NFPs, and employee benefit plans. In its press release on the proposal, the Board explains this philosophy as follows:

Under this philosophy, a major standard would first be effective for larger public companies. For all other entities, the Board would consider requiring an effective date staggered at least two years later. Generally, it is expected that early application would continue to be permitted for all entities.

The table below, which is adapted from the proposed ASU, indicates how the effective dates of the hedging, leasing, and CECL standards would be amended for affected entities (in this table, a calendar year-end is assumed).

Standard	SEC filers	All other public business entities	Private and all other
Hedging	January 2019	January 2019	January 2020 January 2021
Leases	January 2019	January 2019*	January 2020 January 2021
CECL	January 2020 (Except SRCs January 2023)	January 2021 January 2023	January 2022 January 2023
Bold indicates no change in effective date. * Also includes employee benefit plans and not-for-profit conduit bond obligors that file or furnish financial statements with or to the SEC.

Comments on the proposed ASU are due by September 16, 2019. For more information, see Deloitte's related Heads Up newsletter as well as the proposal and FASB in Focus newsletter on the FASB’s Web site.