Accounting and Auditing Research and Databases: Practitioner's Desk Reference

The Financial Accounting Standards Board, Advisory Boards, and the Emerging Issue Task Force

The role of the FASB in today's capital markets is to develop high- quality financial reporting standards that result in credible and transparent financial information in order to service the investing public. The FASB's financial accounting standard-setting process actually involves several entities: the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), the FASB Board itself, the FASB staff, and the Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF), as noted in Exhibit 2-5.

Exhibit 2-5 Organization of FAF, FASB, and GASB

Source: Modified from Accounting & Auditing Research: Tools & Strategies, 7th ed. Reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The seven-member FASB Board represents a broad spectrum of the financial community. It might include partners from large and small CPA firms, corporate executives, financial analysts, and an academic. The FASB pursues its investigative activities with a full-time research staff of approximately 60 to 70 professionals from various backgrounds. The FASB acquires advice from the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC) on the priorities of its current and proposed projects, selecting and organizing task forces, and any other matters that the FASB requests. In addition to the regular FASB staff, the Board has several formal channels for gathering information ...