Last Friday the Financial Accounting Standards Board released selected portions of the SEC content onto its Accounting Standards Codification™, for reference by public companies.  (For more on the Codification, see BVWire # 64-3).  “The Codification does not change the SEC content,” says the FASB release; “instead, it includes the content reorganized into roughly 90 accounting topics to more closely align with the non-SEC-content.”

The SEC sections contain content related to matters within the basic financial statements. However, the sections do not contain the entire population of SEC rules, regulations, interpretive releases, and staff guidance. For example, the Codification does not include content related to matters outside of the basic financial statements, such as Management's Discussion and Analysis, or auditing or independence matters.

The FASB encourages constituents to use the free, online Codification Research System to research accounting issues and provide feedback on whether the content accurately reflects existing U.S. GAAP for non-governmental entities.  Registration is available here.

More evidence FASB acting fast to comply with SEC requests.  Last week the FASB voted to remove the Qualified Special Purpose Entity (QSPE) concept from FAS 140, Accounting for Transfers and Servicing of Financial Assets and Extinguishments of Liabilities, and to remove the related scope exception from FIN 46R, Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities (VIEs).  (For more on the concept and the Board’s release of FSP 140-3, see BVWire #65-3).  The Board expects to release an amended Exposure Draft during the second quarter of this year, according to an FEI posting (April 3, 2008), which also notes that the FASB acted fast to comply with SEC requests to address the QSPE issue by year-end.