Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The development of expected-loss methods of accounting for credit losses
T2 - A review with analysis of comment letters
AU - Hashim, Noor
AU - Li, Weijia
AU - O'Hanlon, John
PY - 2022/9/30
Y1 - 2022/9/30
N2 - After the financial crisis of the late 2000s, concern about delayed credit-loss recognition under the incurred-loss method prompted the FASB and the IASB to develop expected-loss methods. We review the development of these methods, including through comment-letter analysis. Initially, the FASB recommended immediate full recognition of expected losses, including at day one, and the IASB recommended spreading the recognition of initially-expected losses across time. After unsuccessful attempts to converge based on proposals that partly reflected initial recommendations of each board, the boards eventually adopted different methods. We report that U.S. respondents largely opposed the FASB's final method, which required day-one recognition of all expected losses, and that non-U.S. respondents largely supported the IASB's final method, which required day-one recognition of 12-month expected losses. Day-one loss was controversial and impeded convergence. Our comment-letter analysis suggests that a day-one-loss-free more forward-looking incurred-loss method might provide a route to a more converged solution.
AB - After the financial crisis of the late 2000s, concern about delayed credit-loss recognition under the incurred-loss method prompted the FASB and the IASB to develop expected-loss methods. We review the development of these methods, including through comment-letter analysis. Initially, the FASB recommended immediate full recognition of expected losses, including at day one, and the IASB recommended spreading the recognition of initially-expected losses across time. After unsuccessful attempts to converge based on proposals that partly reflected initial recommendations of each board, the boards eventually adopted different methods. We report that U.S. respondents largely opposed the FASB's final method, which required day-one recognition of all expected losses, and that non-U.S. respondents largely supported the IASB's final method, which required day-one recognition of 12-month expected losses. Day-one loss was controversial and impeded convergence. Our comment-letter analysis suggests that a day-one-loss-free more forward-looking incurred-loss method might provide a route to a more converged solution.
KW - financial instruments
KW - credit losses
KW - impairment
KW - expected loss
KW - incurred loss
U2 - 10.2308/HORIZONS-19-117
DO - 10.2308/HORIZONS-19-117
M3 - Journal article
VL - 36
SP - 71
EP - 102
JO - Accounting Horizons
JF - Accounting Horizons
SN - 0888-7993
IS - 3
ER -