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Action Alert No. 07-48
November 29, 2007

NOTICE OF MEETINGS

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

Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 9:00 a.m.

1. Income taxes (estimated 1-hour discussion). The Board will discuss five remaining issues that need to be addressed before drafting an exposure document to converge the accounting for income taxes between the IASB and the FASB. Those issues are (a) definition of tax basis, (b) realizability of deferred tax assets, (c) change in tax status, (d) distributed versus undistributed tax rate, and (e) comment period, effective date, and transition.
2. Derivative disclosures (estimated 1.5-hour discussion).The Board will continue its redeliberations of the Exposure Draft, Disclosures about Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities. The Board will discuss (a) contingent features in derivative instruments, (b) notional amounts and leverage factors, (c) whether to require disclosures for both interim and annual reporting periods or for only annual periods, (d) scope exception for "trading" derivatives, (e) tabular disclosure of cumulative adjustments to hedged items in fair value hedges, (f) whether to require qualitative disclosures that are currently encouraged by paragraph 44 of FASB Statement No. 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities, and (g) effective date and transition.
3. Open discussion. If necessary, the Board will allow time to discuss minor issues with staff members on technical projects or administrative matters. Those discussions are held following regular Board meetings as topics come up.

OPEN EDUCATION SESSION

Wednesday, December 5, 2007, following the Board meeting

The Board will hold an educational, non-decision-making session to discuss topics that are anticipated to be discussed at a future Board meeting. Those topics will be posted to the FASB calendar four days prior to the education sessions.

OPEN MEETING OF THE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING STANDARDS ADVISORY COUNCIL
(This meeting is available by audio webcast and telephone, except the portion noted below.)

Thursday, December 6, 2007, 8:30 a.m.

The Advisory Council will meet to discuss the following topics:

1. Current business and financial reporting issues related to international convergence and the financial reporting environment

2. The Board's project on revenue recognition*

3. FASB Statement 133 issues

4. Planning FASAC input on FASB agenda setting

5. Potential project on intangible assets

6. XBRL

7. Education session on the Codification and XBRL.

The Advisory Council will hear reports from the chairman of the FASB on other Board activities and from a representative of the office of the SEC chief accountant on current accounting-related developments. The Advisory Council also will hear a report from a representative of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

*Audio webcast and telephone not available from approximately 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m

The Advisory Council will hold concurrent break-out group discussions on the revenue recognition project following the morning break until approximately 11:30 a.m. Because there will be multiple break-out group discussions during that time, the discussions will not be available via webcast or telephone. However, the Advisory Council will reconvene at approximately 11:30 a.m. to discuss the results and summary of the break-out discussions. That group session will be available via webcast and telephone.

OPEN MEETING OF THE SMALL BUSINESS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
(This meeting is available by audio webcast and telephone, except the portion noted below.)

Friday, December 7, 2007, 9:00 a.m.

The Small Business Advisory Committee will meet to discuss the following topics:

1. Private company reporting activities

2. The Board's project on revenue recognition*

3. The movement toward IFRS

4. The Board's project on fair value hedge accounting

5. The Board's project on certain nonfinancial liabilities.**

The Advisory Committee will hear a report from the chairman of the FASB on other Board activities. The Advisory Committee also will hear reports from representatives of the Office of the Chief Accountant of the SEC and the Office of the Chief Auditor of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

*Audio webcast and telephone not available from 10:45 a.m. to approximately 11:45 a.m.

The Advisory Committee will hold break-out group discussions on the revenue recognition project from 10:45 until approximately 11:45 a.m. The break-out group discussions will not be available via webcast or telephone. The Advisory Committee will reconvene at approximately 11:45 a.m. for a group discussion on the revenue recognition project. That session and the remainder of the meeting will be available via webcast and telephone.

**Prior to the start of the Advisory Committee meeting, there will be an open education session covering the Board's project on certain nonfinancial liabilities. It is scheduled from 8:15 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in the Board room and it will not be available by audio webcast and telephone.

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.

November 21, 2007 Board Meeting

Conceptual framework: measurements. The staff presented the Board with a review of the measurement basis candidates selected and defined in Milestone I of the measurement phase.

The Board agreed to a revised project plan for the measurement phase that calls for the Board to consider the staff's initial evaluation of the measurement basis candidates in February or March 2008. In subsequent meetings, the Board will consider issues related to selecting measurement bases for use in financial statements. The goal is to issue a discussion paper describing the Board's view on those issues by the end of 2008.

The Board decided to defer issues related to measurements used outside of the financial statements to a later phase of the framework project.

The Board also discussed a preview of the decision tool for evaluating and selecting measurement bases. The Board directed the staff to further develop the decision tool and to test it with examples to help the Board understand how the decision tool will be applied.

Financial guarantee insurance. The Board began redeliberations of the Exposure Draft, Accounting for Financial Guarantee Insurance Contracts, and discussed scope, claim liability recognition and measurement, and premium revenue recognition. The Board decided the following:

1. Application of the final Statement should be limited to financial guarantee insurance (and reinsurance) contracts issued by insurance enterprises.

2. An insurance enterprise should recognize a claim liability on a financial guarantee insurance contract when the insurance enterprise expects that a claim loss will exceed the unearned premium revenue (liability) for that contract based on expected cash flows. The discount rate used to measure the claim liability should be based on the market risk-free rate and updated each quarter (with additional disclosures to be addressed at a future meeting).

3. Premium revenue recognition guidance will be provided, and the premium revenue recognition approach should be based on applying a fixed percentage of premium to the amount of exposure outstanding at each reporting date (referred to as the level-yield approach). The term of a financial guarantee insurance contract should be the contractual term unless the insured financial obligation is subject to prepayments and those prepayments are probable and reasonably estimated. (However, the Board requested that the staff draft and present at a future meeting a principle that prescribes when prepayment data are used to shorten the term of the contract.) The measurement of the exposure outstanding should be based on the remaining principal payments.

REVENUE RECOGNITION PROJECT INFORMATION

The Board held an open education session on November 20, 2007, for the revenue recognition project. In that non-decision-making session, the Board discussed several staff-prepared memos explaining the measurement model of revenue recognition and how it compares to existing U.S. GAAP. That discussion was intended to continue at a future non-decision-making Board meeting. However, the thoroughness of the education session rendered the planned Board meeting discussion unnecessary. Those who are interested in reading the materials discussed at the education session can access them at http://www.fasb.org/board_handouts/11-20-07_RR_Educ_Session.pdf

FASB DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE

Proposed FSP FAS 142-f, Determination of the Useful Life of Intangible Assets (November 26, 2007). Comments are requested by January 16, 2008.

Proposed FSP FAS 157-a, Application of FASB Statement No. 157 to FASB Statement No. 13 and Its Related Interpretive Accounting Pronouncements That Address Leasing Transactions (November 28, 2007). Comments are requested by January 4, 2008.

FUTURE OPEN MEETINGS

The following is a list of open meetings tentatively scheduled through January. 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, December 12, 2007—FASB Board Meeting
Wednesday, December 12, 2007—FASB Education Session
Wednesday, December 19, 2007—FASB Board Meeting
Wednesday, December 19, 2007—FASB Education Session
Friday, January 4, 2008—FASB Board Meeting (tentative)
Friday, January 4, 2008—FASB Education Session
Wednesday, January 9, 2008—FASB Board Meeting
Wednesday, January 9, 2008—FASB Education Session
Wednesday, January 16, 2008—FASB Board Meeting
Wednesday, January 16, 2008—FASB Education Session
Wednesday, January 23, 2008—FASB Board Meeting
Wednesday, January 23, 2008—FASB Education Session
Friday, January 25, 2008—Liaison Meeting with National
    Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts
Wednesday, January 30, 2008—FASB Board Meeting
Wednesday, January 30, 2008—FASB Education Session

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