Exposure Draft Relating to Disclosure of Certain Loss Contingencies

The Litigation Advisory Committee of SIFMA provides comments to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on Exposure Draft: Disclosure of Certain Loss Contingencies (June 5, 2008).  The exposure draft is an amendment of FASB Statements No. 5 and 141(R), File Reference No. 1600-100.  SIFMA shares concerns that the proposal would make financial statements more misleading by requiring the disclosure of “highly uncertain” information regarding litigation contingencies. SIFMA believes that this would shift the disclosure standard based on accuracy to a standard based on speculation, and questions the significant costs of implementing the proposal.