Financial Accounting Foundation chairman Jack Brennan is under pressure from private-company interests to set up a new body—the Private Company Council—to determine separate GAAP for private companies. PCC advocates—including the US Chamber of Commerce—argue that traditional US GAAP has too many disclosure and fair-value requirements that impose very high compliance costs on private companies. But there are influential players—including the Big Four auditors—who oppose creating the PCC. They argue that the compliance costs of traditional GAAP are the price of high-quality accounting standards. Balancing these powerful interests, Brennan must make a decision on the PCC; at stake is US GAAP's ability to facilitate capital allocation decisions in the economy.
Keywords: FASB; leadership; lobbying; political economy; Accounting; Government and Politics; Leadership; Financial Markets; Accounting Industry; Financial Services Industry; Public Administration Industry;
Citation:
Ramanna, Karthik, and Luis M. Viceira. "The Private Company Council." Harvard Business School Case 113-045, January 2013. (Revised March 2016.) View Details
