Debtwire Municipals' Head of Research Greg Clark interviews Jeffrey J. Previdi, vice chair of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), discussing organization efforts on monitoring projects and standard setting agenda items.

Jeff starts out the podcast by discussing “monitoring projects that GASB has undertaken that include: the Financial Data Transparency Act (FDTA), ESG [environmental, social, governance] and digital assets.

Jeff goes on to explain the complexity in implementing FDTA requirements as it relates to taxonomy and maintaining it over time. He also specifically dives into the challenges that will be faced in creating legal entity identifiers for municipal credits.

The conversation then turns to standard setting agenda items (going concern opinions, risk disclosures and infrastructure asset accounting).

Jeff highlights how going concern opinions have a different meaning in the public vs private sectors. He also discusses a recurring issue when governments cease to exist due to a merger and whether a going concern disclosure is necessary under those circumstances.

The podcast concludes with Jeff discussing the impetus behind risk disclosures and accounting for infrastructure assets becoming standard setting agenda items.

Jeff began serving as a GASB member on July 1, 2016, was appointed to serve as vice chair of GASB effective July 1, 2017, and was reappointed to a second term that concludes on June 30, 2026. Previously, Jeff served in a variety of roles for more than two decades at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (now S&P Global Ratings).

Greg Clark is a municipal analyst with more than four decades of experience at a rating agency, broker-dealers, commercial banks, bond insurers, and a hedge fund. He is also a former chairman of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts and of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York.

#GASB #FDTA #XBRL #muniland #accounting