The FASB's New Public Face.

• Author: Heffes, Ellen M.
• Position: Financial Accounting Standards Board

Serving the investing public through transparent information resulting from high-quality financial reporting standards, developed in an independent, private-sector, open due process.

Can you answer these questions about the Financial Accounting Standards Board: What does it do? How is it organized? What is its role in providing information to investors?

Many members of Congress may not answer correctly, says FASB Chairman Edmund Jenkins. So, among other things, he's set out to change that. "Since talking with members of Congress, I realized there's not a clear understanding of what we do, why we're organized the way we are and how we fit into the process of providing information to investors," he said in a recent interview. And, it's not just elected representatives that are in the dark. "There are individuals in business and industry who don't have a clear understanding."

The FASB's plans for expanded communications represent one of his original goals when accepting the chairman's post in 1997. "This is part of a process," he explains. "It's something we have to keep doing, as the players keep changing."

Sounds like the FASB is recognizing the value of branding, as it gets its message out through a stream of venues and communications initiatives. These activities -- a new tagline; new publications, such as "Communications with Constituents" and "Understanding the Issues;" town meetings with constituents around the country; and a new process for garnering support for introducing new projects -- all tie together with Jenkins' original goal of getting more support in the business community for what the FASB does.

He says of the board's uniqueness: "It's not a government organization, so it's not a regulator, yet it's seen as a regulator because it sets rules that companies have to follow when presenting financial information." Underlying efforts to tell this story is Jenkins' belief in the United States' system -- one that favors independent standard- setting, resulting in the ability to render objective decisions. "The lack of independence and objectivity is the reason why standard-setters in the prior 40 years have failed," says Jenkins.

As the arena heats up for converging international accounting standards, the U.S. model is setting an example for other countries. Jenkins explains that many of the standard-setters around the world come at financial reporting from a legal perspective, as opposed to an investor perspective -- a big...