Accounting for capital instruments

The Accounting Standards Board has released a paper entitled 'Accounting for Capital Instruments' which is intended to improve the accounting of the liability and equity aspects of capital instruments. The paper provides an assessment of the equity and non-equity positions of stockholders' interests, as well as subsidiaries' minority holdings. The accounting of costs related to the issue of capital instruments is also discussed. The paper's proposals are generally consistent with those published in the E40 Financial Instruments exposure draft of the International Accounting Standards Committee.