FASB Issues Statement No. 161, Disclosures about Derivative Instruments and Hedging...

FASB Issues Statement No. 161, Disclosures about Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities

NORWALK, Conn.--(Business Wire)--
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) today issued FASB
Statement No. 161, Disclosures about Derivative Instruments and
Hedging Activities. The new standard is intended to improve financial
reporting about derivative instruments and hedging activities by
requiring enhanced disclosures to enable investors to better
understand their effects on an entity's financial position, financial
performance, and cash flows. It is effective for financial statements
issued for fiscal years and interim periods beginning after November
15, 2008, with early application encouraged.

"Use and complexity of derivative instruments and hedging
activities have increased significantly over the past several years.
This has led to concerns among investors that the existing disclosure
requirements in FASB Statement No. 133, Accounting for Derivative
Instruments and Hedging Activities, do not provide enough information
about how these instruments and activities affect the entity's
financial position and performance," explained Kevin Stoklosa, project
manager. "By requiring additional information about how and why
derivative instruments are being used, the new standard gives
investors better information upon which to base their decisions."

The new standard also improves transparency about the location and
amounts of derivative instruments in an entity's financial statements;
how derivative instruments and related hedged items are accounted for
under Statement 133; and how derivative instruments and related hedged
items affect its financial position, financial performance, and cash
flows.

FASB Statement No. 161 achieves these improvements by requiring
disclosure of the fair values of derivative instruments and their
gains and losses in a tabular format. It also provides more
information about an entity's liquidity by requiring disclosure of
derivative features that are credit risk-related. Finally, it requires
cross-referencing within footnotes to enable financial statement users
to locate important information about derivative instruments.

FASB Statement No. 161 is available at www.fasb.org.

About the Financial Accounting Standards Board

Since 1973, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has been the
designated organization in the private sector for establishing
standards of financial accounting and reporting. Those standards
govern the preparation of financial reports and are officially
recognized as authoritative by the Securities and Exchange Commission
and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Such
standards are essential to the efficient functioning of the economy
because investors, creditors, auditors, and others rely on credible,
transparent, and comparable financial information. For more
information about the FASB, visit our website at www.fasb.org.

Financial Accounting Standards Board
Christine Klimek, 203-956-3459

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