FASB Issues Final ASU Requiring Enhanced Disclosure Of Segment Expenses

The FASB has announced a final Accounting Standards Update designed to improve disclosures about public companies' reportable segments, particularly disclosures about significant segment expenses—information that the FASB says investors frequently request. The ASU indicates that investors and others view segment information as “critically important in understanding a public entity's different business activities. That information enables investors to better understand an entity's overall performance and assists in assessing potential future cash flows.” According to FASB Chair Richard R. Jones, the “new segment reporting guidance is based on the FASB's extensive outreach with stakeholders, including investors, who indicated that enhanced disclosures about a public company's segment expenses would enable them to develop more decision-useful financial analyses….It will improve financial reporting by providing additional information about a public company's significant