GASB Issues Statement 72 on Fair Value Measurements

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has issued its final standard on accounting and financial reporting issues related to fair value measurements. This standard (GASB Statement 72, Fair Value Measurement and Application) is applicable primarily to investments made by state and local governments and defines fair value and describes how fair value should be measured, identifies the assets and liabilities that should be measured at fair value, and requires specific information about fair value to be disclosed in the financial statement footnotes.

This Statement defines fair value as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. The new standard also expands note disclosures to categorize fair values according to their relative reliability.

Statement 72 is effective for financial statements for periods beginning after June 15, 2015, and earlier application is encouraged. More information about the GASB and Statement 72 is available from the GASB web site.