Speech: What Is an Asset?, January 12, 1993
For Release January 8, 1993 Walter P. Schuetze Chief Accountant Securities and Exchange Commission American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' Twentieth Annual National Conference on CUrrent SEC Developments , < i January 12, 1993 What is an Asset? The Securities and Exchange commission, as a matter of policy, disclaims responsibility for any publication or statement by its employees. The views expressed herein are those of Mr. Schuetze and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission or the other staff of the Commission. What is an Asset? I am pleased to make my second appearance on the program of this annual national conference on current SEC developments. The year gone by has been one where the staff has concentrated on promoting the Commission's drive for mark-to-market accounting for marketable debt and equity securities. That policy was set out in Congressional testimony in september 1990 by Chairman Breeden and in December 1990 by James Doty, the Commission's.former General Counsel. We have continued to encourage the Financial Accounting standards Board, and the financial community in general, to embrace the idea of mark-to-market for marketable securities. contrary to the perception by some, we have not been promoting mark-to-market for other assets, such as plant and equipment, pa tents and copyrights, or commercial loans held by banks. What the staff has done, however, is to suggest the idea that, when one is looking to identify impairment of the carrying amount of assets such as stocks, bonds, loans, plant, and patents, it is appropriate to look at the fair value of the asset and compare that fair value to the carrying amount of the asset.
[Show full text]