The deadline for responding to the Invitation to Comment (ITC) on the proposed Valuation Guidance for Financial Reporting by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is fast approaching: Comments are due by April 15, 2007.   So far, the FASB has received only six responses, including a thorough overview by the International Valuation Standards Committee (IVSC) (see BVWire #54-2), which focuses more on the need for convergence:  

The IVSC supports the need for a set of valuation standards that are accompanied by sufficient interpretative and implementation guidance such that the standard is understandable, operational, and capable of being applied consistently in similar situations.   The IVSC does not support the need to set separate valuation standards for financial reporting (as distinct from any application guidance for a specific valuation purpose). The universal concepts, definitions and principles for valuation are the same, although there may be differences in their application and reporting.

By comparison, the remaining comments are rather terse.   “Any guidance would be extremely helpful,” says one practitioner.   Another submits:

I believe that separate valuation guidance specifically for financial reporting is not necessary. Some attempt should be made to work with valuation guidance that exists. If written, new guidance would likely make matters more complicated…From my perspective, the FASB is in a unique position to provide immense value to the market by working with existing valuation guidance, rather than creating its own.