The International Accounting Standards Board
(IASB) and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) have
agreed on a new approach to accounting for credit losses.

They will release a proposal later this month
which will tackle one of the most important aspects of accounting
for financial instruments.

The current approach to credit losses has been
heavily criticized during the financial crisis and is said to
prevent entities from accounting for expected losses early on.

The IASB and the FASB originally published separate proposals on
credit impairment of financial assets. They proposed moving to a
more forward-looking approach to accounting for impairment but
proposed different models at the time.