Top 10 Accounting Headlines from North America The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a long-awaited decision that many practitioners had hoped would provide insight into the permissible breadth of third-party releases and injunctions often contained in confirmed chapter 11 plans. A proposed change to lease accounting rules appears to be gaining traction and could have a large impact on both the debt reported on a company's balance sheet and its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). The SEC recently issued for comment a proposed roadmap forinitially allowing and eventually requiring U.S. issuers to reportfinancial results in accordance with International FinancialReporting Standards ("IFRS") as issued by theInternational Accounting Standards Board ("IASB") ratherthan generally accepted accounting principles in the United States("U.S. GAAP"). In a recent ruling from the bench, Judge James M. Peck of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York held that Metavante Corporation’s suspension of payments under an outstanding swap agreement with Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc. (“LBSF”) was not safe harbored, and instead violated the automatic stay of section 362(a) of the Bankruptcy Code. The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a long-awaited decision that many practitioners had hoped would provide insight into the permissible breadth of third-party releases and injunctions often contained in confirmed chapter 11 plans. Economic conditions over the past year have forced an increasing number of companies to file for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. When Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection on September 15, 2008, Lehman (directly and through its subsidiaries and affiliates) was party to more than 900,000 derivative contracts. Neither trademark practitioners nor trademark owners or users can afford to operate without deference to bankruptcy law principles. On September 25, 2009, the Canadian Securities Administrators (the CSA) published for comment a new rule (the Proposed Rule) that would replace the existing National Instrument 52-107 — "Acceptable Accounting Principles, Auditing Standards and Reporting Currency". The IRS has issued new guidance regarding supporting organizations, which are entities that obtain public charity status by virtue of their relationship with other public charities. | 
