Financial reporting developments
A comprehensive guide

Transfers and servicing of financial assets
Revised May 2014

To our clients and other friends
We are pleased to provide you with the latest edition of our Financial Reporting Developments publication on accounting for transfers and servicing of financial assets. This publication has been updated for further clarification and enhancements to our interpretative guidance. Applying ASC 860 in practice continues to be challenging. ASC 860’s scope is wide and applies to more than just securitizations. Moreover, ASC 860 relies in part on legal interpretations to determine the accounting for the transfer. Additionally, a transferor’s continuing involvement — which can vary significantly from transaction to transaction — will also affect the accounting analysis, requiring a complete understanding of both the business purpose and the form of the transaction. The authoritative literature on accounting for transfers of financial assets continues to change. The FASB is currently finalizing a project that would amend the accounting for repurchase-to-maturity transactions and repurchase financings and require new disclosures for certain transfers accounted for as sales and secured borrowings. In addition, the AICPA is updating its guidance on the use of legal interpretations as evidential matter to support management’s assertion that a transfer of financial assets has met the isolation criterion in ASC 860. This publication includes excerpts from and references to the FASB’s Accounting Standards Codification, interpretive guidance and examples. Practice continues to develop and additional authoritative guidance in this area could be issued subsequent to the issuance of this publication. While we will update this publication as additional authoritative guidance is issued, affected entities and interested parties should