Reflections and wishes at year-end.

• Author: Hollein, Marie
• Position: President's page

It has been a very busy fall in the halls of Congress. While health-care reform has been dominating the headlines, there have been significant developments on other fronts. Over the past few months, there has been major progress for financial regulatory reform. Numerous legislative proposals--including the regulation of credit rating agencies and over-the-counter derivatives--passed the House Financial Services Committee.

The committee has also considered some provisions that would affect accounting standards. The Senate Banking Committee released its draft omnibus financial regulatory reform package, which largely mirrored legislation proposed by the U.S. Treasury earlier this year. Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) seeks to impose significant regulation on derivatives contracts and desires to consolidate banking regulators. FEI committees have been active in advocating to protect access to reasonably priced and customized derivatives products.

More good news: The Net Operating Loss (NOL) Carryback Relief was passed as an add-on to the unemployment bill, which cleared Congress and was signed into law by President Obama in November. The law provides an election for most taxpayers to carry back NOLs from 2008 or 2009 for up to five years, thereby increasing the carryback period from the general two-year period. FEI is a proud member of the NOL Coalition and has worked tirelessly with the group to advocate to Congress on passage of this provision.

Addressing Current and Future Financial Reporting Issues There is no doubt that, similar to last year, the world of accounting and reporting is in the midst of great change. At such a time, knowledge of the current issues in financial reporting and the business environment become even more important. I'm pleased to report that now in its 28th year, our annual Current Financial Reporting Issues conference has become a must-attend event for the preparer community, which is clear by the number of members and others who attended the conference last month.

FEI and CFRI attendees are all, in some way, connected to the business of preparing or auditing financial statements, and the challenges for us all are considerable. While current standards and regulations mandate what we do, how we do it and when we do it, these standards and regulations are continually changing. Now, in particular, they could very well be at the brink of monumental change--more change than what followed the Great Depression.

It's in this...