What is the Accounting Standards Board (ASB)?

The Accounting Standards Board (ASB) is a former organization that was responsible for drafting and issuing accounting standards in the United Kingdom. The ASB was located in London, England and was similar in function to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) of the United States. The ASB was succeeded by the Accounting Council, a part of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), on July 2, 2012.

What does the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) Do?

The Accounting Standards Board (ASB) was set up under the provisions of the Companies Act of 1985 as one of the two subsidiaries of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the other being the Financial Reporting Review Panel (FRRP). It replaced the Accounting Standards Committee (ASC) on August 1, 1990 as the primary issuer of accounting standards in the UK. The ASB, along with the FRRP, was in charge of promoting superior financial reporting in the region and providing a focus for constituents in the UK in order to ensure that their views were considered in the international development of accounting standards. The Accounting Standards Board adopted several Statements of Standard Accounting Practice (SSAPs) that had been issued by the Accounting Standards Committee in order to bring them within the legal definition of accounting standards as stipulated in the Companies Act of 1985. The ASB developed and issued accounting standards as Financial Reporting Standards (FRS). In 1991, a new body known as the Urgent Issues Task Force (UITF) was constituted to assist the ASB in its primary functions. The UITF was tasked with exploring sectors that were already affected by or were vulnerable to discords or unsatisfactory interpretations of accounting standards or provisions of the Companies Act. On July 24, 1991 the UITF released its first abstract Convertible bonds - supplemental interest/premium. In 2004, the government of the United Kingdom decided to strengthen its regulatory system as a reaction to the corporate collapses in the United States. As a result, the roles and responsibilities of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) were extended to such an extent that it essentially transformed into the sole independent regulator in the domains of accounting and auditing. The FRC was also bestowed with the additional responsibility of issuing accounting standards and managing their enforcement. In July, 2012, the passage of certain reforms authorized the FRC to function as a unified regulatory body with enhanced independence. This was followed by the implementation of a new structure to ensure effective governance of all of the FRC's regulatory activities under the purview of the FRC Board. The new reforms also mandated the establishment of the Codes and Standards Committee as an advisory body to the FRC Board. This was accompanied by the replacement of the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) by the Accounting Council, which is a body that reports to the Codes and Standards Committee. The UITF was dissolved shortly thereafter.