Variation in Attributes of Redeemable Preferred Stock: Implications for Accounting Standards.

Abstract SYNOPSIS AND INTRODUCTION: The volume and variety of financial instruments has increased significantly in recent years. The increased prevalence of these securities, which are characterized by a diverse mix of both debt and equity attributes, has created a significant classification challenge for accountants. For example, nearly half of the items addressed by the Emerging Issues Task Force have dealt with financial instrument issues (Woods and Bullen 1989), and Beaver (1992, 139) has called accounting for financial instruments "…the financial reporting issue of the 1990s." Redeemable Preferred Stock (RPFD) is representative of these hybrid financial instruments. RPFD is distinguished from perpetual preferred stock by virtue of required redemption payments by the issuing corporation to retire the principal investment and any accumulated dividends. As a result, some have argued that RPFD is similar to debt and should receive similar reporting and accounting treatment (Nair et al. 1990). Indeed, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules preclude disclosure of RPFD as part of equity, but do not require disclosure as debt. As a result, most firms under SEC jurisdiction disclose RPFD under balance sheet captions other than debt or equity (Nair et al. 1990).SUP1 The SEC, however, has not fully resolved issues related to the classification of RPFD but has left this topic for consideration by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). In an effort to resolve accounting problems of hybrid securities like RPFD, the FASB issued a discussion memorandum, "Distinguishing Between Liability and Equity Instruments and Accounting for Instruments with Characteristics of Both" (FASB 1990). The discussion memorandum considers three possible approaches to classify and account for hybrid securities: 1) classify as either debt or equity; 2) create an additional balance sheet category for quasi-equity securities; 3) adopt an entity approach in which securities are...