Dataline: Disclosure of Certain Loss Contingencies -- An Analysis of the FASB's Proposed Changes (Revised February 1, 2011*) (No. 2010-32)

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On July 20, 2010, the FASB issued an exposure draft of a proposed Accounting Standards Update, Contingencies -- Disclosure of Certain Loss Contingencies. The proposed disclosures in the exposure draft consist of qualitative and quantitative information about loss contingencies aimed at enabling financial statement users to understand their nature, potential magnitude, and potential timing (if known). The disclosures would include publicly-available quantitative information, such as the claim amount for asserted litigation contingencies, other relevant nonprivileged information about the contingency, and, in some cases, information about possible recoveries from insurance and other sources. Public companies would be required to provide a tabular reconciliation (i.e., a rollforward) of recognized loss contingencies from the beginning to the end of the reporting period. This Dataline provides a summary of the proposal and includes PwC's insights on selected matters.

*Sections entitled At a glance (third and fourth bullets), Background (paragraphs 4 and 5),Transition and effective date (paragraphs 17-19), and IASB loss contingencies project (paragraph 26) have been revised and a new section entitled SEC staff views (paragraphs 20-25) has been added to reflect the delayed timing of this project and incorporate relevant views expressed by the SEC staff.