ASU 2020-04 - Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting
Issued: March 2020; Amended: January 2021
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•The ASU provides optional expedients and exceptions for applying U.S. GAAP to contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions affected by reference rate reform if certain criteria are met, including the following:
◦Modifications of contracts within the scope of Topics 310, Receivables, and 470, Debt, should be accounted for by prospectively adjusting the effective interest rate;
◦Modifications of contracts within the scope of Topic 842, Leases, should be accounted for as a continuation of the existing contracts with no reassessments of the lease classification or discount rate;
◦The ASU also provides optional expedients for various hedging relationships, allowing hedge accounting to continue uninterrupted, provided certain criteria are met; and,
◦An entity may make a one time election to sell, transfer, or both sell and transfer debt securities classified as held to maturity if certain criteria are met.
•Topic 848 was subsequently amended in January 2021, allowing entities to elect certain optional expedients and exceptions in Topic 848 relating to derivative contracts and hedge accounting affected by the discounting transition initiated by certain central clearing parties.
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•Management early adopted the guidance on October 1, 2020.
•While neither the ASU or the amendment had a material impact on Huntington’s Consolidated Financial Statements, they do ease the administrative burden of accounting for contracts impacted by reference rate reform.
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