Private Company Council identifies four areas for study.

• Position: News&trends - Brief article

The Private Company Council, a new body created to improve the standard-setting process for private companies, recently identified four areas to research for agenda consideration:

1. Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 810, Consolidation (formerly FIN 46(R) and FAS 167), which involves financial reporting by companies involved with variable interest entities (organizations in which the investor holds a controlling interest that is not based on the majority of voting rights).

2. Accounting for "plain vanilla" interest rate swaps, which are used to convert variable interest rates on loans to fixed interest rates, and vice versa, as referenced in ASC Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging (formerly FAS 133).

3. ASC Topic 740, Income Taxes (formerly FIN 481, which is intended to increase relevance and comparability...