2011

Dec. 7, 2011 - Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation releases groundbreaking study, "Economic Impacts of the Proposed Changes to Lease Accounting Standards." Listen to a recording of the Foundation's press briefing on the study.

Nov. 30, 2011 - Lease Accounting Project Update and Commentary: What's New Since October

Nov. 14, 2011 - Speaking at a Financial Executives International accounting conference, Leslie Seidman, Chair of the FASB, and Ian Mackintosh, Vice Chairman of the IASB, announced that an Exposure Draft on accounting for leases will be issued in late March or early April 2012. Issuance of the ED would be followed by a 120-day Comment Period.

Oct. 12, 2011 - Article: IASB/FASB Leases Accounting Project to Be Re-Exposed: Issues and Implications, by Bill Bosco

Oct. 6, 2011 - IASB and FASB Push Back Lease Accounting Exposure Draft to Q1 2012 with a 120-day comment period.

Sept. 15, 2011 - At ELFA Conference, Standard Setters Urge Comments on New Lease Accounting Exposure Draft

July 21, 2011 - The IASB and the FASB announced their intention to re-expose their revised proposals for a common leasing standard. Re-exposing the revised proposals will provide interested parties with an opportunity to comment on revisions the boards have undertaken since the publication of an exposure draft on leasing in August 2010. Read announcement..

July 8, 2011: ELFA joins with 31 organizations in signing a joint letter to the IASB and FASB on the lease accounting project. "Having taken the opportunity to fully analyze the recent May decisions of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), we have serious substantive and procedural concerns regarding these decisions," the letter reads. "Accordingly, we respectfully request that FASB and IASB reverse the May decisions and fully re-expose the final proposed leasing standard for comprehensive public input and comment." Read the letter.

June 28, 2011: Just announced! Don't miss the Lease Accounting Update Web Seminar on July 27, 1pm-2:30pm ET

May 23, 2011: At a joint meeting on May 19, the FASB and IASB reversed recent tentative decisions in the lease accounting project, and tentatively decided the following:
- Lessee P&L - No leases will be allowed straight-line rent expense treatment; rather, all leases will have to be front ended lease costs equal to interest expense and depreciation of the right-of-use lease asset.
- Transition Ã± Full retrospective accounting is being considered to alleviate the negative P&L hit on transitions using a prospective method.
- Incremental Borrowing Rate - A lessee will use the new incremental borrowing rate to calculate adjustments when lease term assumptions change.
- Short-Term Leases - Will likely not be exempt from capitalization.
- Lessor Accounting - Still undecided between only using a derecognition method or having both an operating lease method and a derecognition method. They are considering accreting residuals in the derecognition method.

May 16, 2011: ELFA and the global leasing industry have issued a Joint Letter on Global Leasing Industry Views on Accounting for Lessors to the Chairmen of FASB and IASB. The letter is signed by the US Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA), Leaseurope (the European leasing and automotive rental federation) 1 , the Japanese Leasing Association (JLA), the China Leasing Business Association (CLBA), the Canadian Finance and Leasing Association (CFLA), the Australian Equipment Lessors Association (AELA), the Australian Fleet Lessors Association (AFLA) and the Truck Renting and Leasing Association (TRALA).

May 1, 2011: Read the Financial Watch column in the May/June issue of ELT Magazine.

April 15, 2011: IASB and FASB delay convergence of leasing standard
The FASB and IASB have postponed the June target deadline for a converged leasing standard "a few more months" to provide more time to respond to feedback from ELFA and others. June Ã¬was always intended to be a target, not a deadline, and we always said that achieving the target was subject to the nature and extent of the feedback that we got on each of the exposure documents,Ã® FASB Chairman Leslie Seidman said on a podcast summarizing a meeting of the two groups that ended April 14. Ã¬At this point on each of the exposure documents we have received significant and very constructive feedback and we are in the process of working through those issues. The quality of the standards remains of the utmost importance.Ã®
Read more from Bloomberg.

April 1, 2011: FASB and IASB are re-deliberating key issues in their proposal to overhaul lease accounting due to feedback from comment letters and outreach meetings. Read a summary of their tentative decisions.

Feb. 28, 2011: As a result of numerous comment letters received by the December deadline and various other outreach activities conducted in January, the FASB and IASB, at a mid-February meeting, tentatively decided to change the Exposure DraftÃs proposed definition of the lease term to include only optional periods for which there is a significant economic incentive for the lessee to extend (or not terminate) the lease. In addition, Re: variable lease payments (like contingent rents and residual value guarantees), the Boards have tentatively decided that the lesseeÃs liability and lessorÃs receivable should include lease payments that depend on an index or rate; lease payments for which the variability lacks commercial substance; and lease payments that meet a high recognition threshold (such as reasonably certain). They continue to deliberate other outstanding issues in the Exposure Draft, including the income and expense recognition pattern, definition of a lease, and lessor accounting. Download a more complete summary of these developments.

Update from the January IASB Meeting, Jan. 17-21, 2011:
Education session on the way forward for lessor accounting model(s)
How to define a lease and how to distinguish it from a service

Jan. 13, 2011: Through the filing of over 700 Comment Letters and an early-January outreach effort involving a series of roundtables and other constituent meetings, the IASB and FASB received significant opposition to elements of an Exposure Draft that contains proposals that would change current lease accounting rules. The ELFA was represented at all these events and provided critical input to the Boards as they deliberate on the details of a replacement standard for FAS 13. Discussion at the meetings centered on implications of the Exposure DraftÃs proposed rules relating to lessee and lessor accounting, and also the June 2011 timetable established by the Boards for adoption of a new standard. In the opinion of many who attended the meetings, it will be very difficult for the Boards to reconcile all the outstanding issues in time to meet the June deadline. The IASB and FASB plan to hold subsequent meetings on January 19 and 20 to deliberate on the various issues involved as well as decide on the future direction and timeline for the project.

Equipment Leasing and Finance Association - Investing Forward