NORWALK, Conn. — The Financial Accounting Standards Board has delayed, yet again, the release of its final statement on merger accounting standards between mutuals.

FASB and the International Accounting standards Board have been working jointly on the issue, which aims to bring the generally accepted accounting principles in line with the international standards. A final standard is expected by yearend, NAFCU Associate Director of Regulatory Affairs Tessema Tefferi said, but the issuance dates have been extended several times already. "They deliberate and re-deliberate about the details," he said.

The new standard will move credit unions and other mutuals from the pooling method of accounting, where combining mutuals retained earnings are simply added together, to the purchase method. One thing the delays helped credit unions with was pushing a legislative fix into law last year in the Financial Services Regulatory Relief Act that changed the definition of credit union's net worth. That was a "tremendously helpful fix" Tefferi explained. Without it, a continuing credit union could have artificially been placed under Prompt Corrective Action because under the purchase method retained earnings are not added together, effectively halving a credit union's net worth. FASB testified before Congress that this was an unintended consequence.