Unions, FASB Oversight Panel, Pension Funds Urge Congress Not to Intervene in Options Accounting Reform

Forty major institutional investors and investor advisory groups, large public retirement funds, labor unions, institutional investors, and the Council of Institutional investors issued a statement on May 19 urging Congress not to tamper with accounting reform. On May 17, Robert Denham, president of the Financial Accounting Foundation, the group that oversees the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), made a strongly worded statement also urging Congress not to act, arguing that it would be a threat the to credibility of accounting statements for U.S. companies. While legislation to block FASB's efforts have made some progress in the House, the chair and ranking minority members of the Senate Banking Committee (Richard Shelby, R-AL and Paul Sarbanes, D-MD) both strongly oppose the bill.