Note 3: Impact of Accounting Pronouncements

In August 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-15, Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230): Classification of Certain Cash Receipts and Cash Payments. The ASU is intended to address diversity in how certain cash receipts and cash payments are presented and classified in the statement of cash flows.

This Accounting Standards Update addresses the following eight specific cash flow issues: debt prepayment or debt extinguishment costs; settlement of zero-coupon debt instruments or other debt instruments with coupon interest rates that are insignificant in relation to the effective interest rate of the borrowing; contingent consideration payments made after a business combination; proceeds from the settlement of insurance claims; proceeds from the settlement of corporate-owned life insurance policies (COLIs) (including bank-owned life insurance policies (BOLIs)); distributions received from equity method investees; beneficial interests in securitization transactions; and separately identifiable cash flows and application of the predominance principle.

The amendments are effective for public business entities for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, and interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted, including adoption in an interim period. The Company does not anticipate that this ASU will have a material effect on its financial position or results of operations.

In June 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued ASU 2016-13, Financial Instruments-Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Statements. Topic 326 amends guidance on reporting credit losses for assets held at amortized cost basis and available for sale debt securities. The ASU is intended to improve financial reporting by requiring timelier recording of credit losses on loans and other financial instruments held by financial institutions and other organizations.

The ASU requires the measurement of all expected credit losses for financial assets held at the reporting date based on historical experience, current conditions, and reasonable and supportable forecasts. Financial institutions and other organizations will now use forward-looking information to better inform their credit loss estimates.

Many of the loss estimation techniques applied today will still be permitted, although the inputs to those techniques will change to reflect the full amount of expected credit losses. Organizations will continue to use judgment to determine which loss estimation method is appropriate for their circumstances.

The ASU requires enhanced disclosures to help investors and other financial statement users better understand significant estimates and judgments used in estimating credit losses, as well as the credit quality and underwriting standards of an organization’s portfolio. These disclosures include qualitative and quantitative requirements that provide additional information about the amounts recorded in the financial statements.

In addition, the ASU amends the accounting for credit losses on available-for-sale debt securities and purchased financial assets with credit deterioration.

The ASU is effective for SEC filers for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2019 (i.e., January 1, 2020), for calendar year entities. Early application will be permitted for all organizations for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2018. The Company is currently evaluating what impact this pronouncement will have on its consolidated financial statements.

In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-09, Compensation–Stock Compensation: Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting. The amendments are intended to improve the accounting for employee share-based payments and affect all organizations that issue share-based payment awards to their employees.

Several aspects of the accounting for share-based payment award transactions are simplified, including: (a) income tax consequences; (b) classification of awards as either equity or liabilities; and (c) classification on the statement of cash flows.

For public companies, the amendments are effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2016, and interim periods within those annual periods. Early adoption is permitted for any organization in any interim or annual period. The Company does not anticipate that this ASU will have a material effect on its financial position or results of operations.

In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-07, Investments - Equity Method and Joint Ventures: Simplifying the Transition to the Equity Method of Accounting. The amendments affect all entities that have an investment that becomes qualified for the equity method of accounting as a result of an increase in the level of ownership interest or degree of influence.

The amendments eliminate the requirement that when an investment qualifies for use of the equity method as a result of an increase in the level of ownership interest or degree of influence, an investor must adjust the investment, results of operations, and retained earnings retroactively on a step-by-step basis as if the equity method had been in effect during all previous periods that the investment had been held. The amendments require that the equity method investor add the cost of acquiring the additional interest in the investee to the current basis of the investor’s previously held interest and adopt the equity method of accounting as of the date the investment becomes qualified for equity method accounting. Therefore, upon qualifying for the equity method of accounting, no retroactive adjustment of the investment is required.

The amendments require that an entity that has an available-for-sale equity security that becomes qualified for the equity method of accounting recognize through earnings the unrealized holding gain or loss in accumulated other comprehensive income at the date the investment becomes qualified for use of the equity method.

The amendments are effective for all entities for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2016. The amendments should be applied prospectively upon their effective date to increases in the level of ownership interest or degree of influence that result in the adoption of the equity method. Earlier application is permitted. The Company does not anticipate that this ASU will have a material effect on its financial position or results of operations.

In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-06, Derivatives and Hedging: Contingent Put and Call Options in Debt Instruments. The amendments apply to all entities that are issuers of or investors in debt instruments (or hybrid financial instruments that are determined to have a debt host) with embedded call (put) options.

Derivatives and Hedging, requires that embedded derivatives be separated from the host contract and accounted for separately as derivatives if certain criteria are met. One of those criteria is that the economic characteristics and risks of the embedded derivatives are not clearly and closely related to the economic characteristics and risks of the host contract (the “clearly and closely related” criterion).

U.S. GAAP provides specific guidance for assessing whether call (put) options that can accelerate the repayment of principal on a debt instrument meet the clearly and closely related criterion. The guidance states that for contingent call (put) options to be considered clearly and closely related, they can be indexed only to interest rates or credit risk.

The amendments clarify what steps are required when assessing whether the economic characteristics and risks of call (put) options are clearly and closely related to the economic characteristics and risks of their debt hosts, which is one of the criteria for bifurcating an embedded derivative. Consequently, when a call (put) option is contingently exercisable, an entity does not have to assess whether the event that triggers the ability to exercise a call (put) option is related to interest rates or credit risks.

Public business entities must apply the new requirements for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016 and interim periods within those fiscal years. All entities have the option of adopting the new requirements early, including adoption in an interim period. If an entity early adopts the new requirements in an interim period, it must reflect any adjustments as of the beginning of the fiscal year that includes that interim period. The Company does not anticipate that this ASU will have a material effect on its financial position or results of operations.

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02, Leases. The objective of the amendment is to establish the principles that lessees and lessors shall apply to report useful information to users of financial statements about the amount, timing, and uncertainty of cash flows arising from a lease.

The most significant changes under the new guidance, lessees will be required to recognize the following for all leases (with the exception of short-term leases) at the commencement date:

A lease liability, which is a lessee’s obligation to make lease payments arising from a lease, measured on a discounted basis; and

A right-of-use asset, which is an asset that represents the lessee’s right to use, or control the use of, a specified asset for the lease term.

The amendments in this update are effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years. The Company is currently evaluating what impact this pronouncement will have on its consolidated financial statements.

In January 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-01, Financial Instruments-Overall: Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities. The amendments in this Update require all equity investments to be measured at fair value with changes in the fair value recognized through net income (other than those accounted for under equity method of accounting or those that result in consolidation of the investee).

The amendments also require an entity to present separately in other comprehensive income the portion of the total change in the fair value of a liability resulting from a change in the instrument-specific credit risk when the entity has elected to measure the liability at fair value in accordance with the fair value option for financial instruments. In addition the amendments in this Update eliminate the requirement to disclose the fair value of financial instruments measured at amortized cost for entities that are not public business entities and the requirement for to disclose the method(s) and significant assumptions used to estimate the fair value that is required to be disclosed for financial instruments measured at amortized cost on the balance sheet for public business entities.

The new guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning of December 15, 2017, including interim periods within those fiscal years. The Company does not anticipate that this ASU will have a material effect on its financial position or results of operations.

In December 2015, the FASB issued ASU 2015-16, Business Combinations, Simplifying the Accounting for Measurement-Period Adjustments. The objective of this Update was to simplify the accounting for adjustments made to provisional amounts recognized in a business combination. The amendments eliminate the requirement to retrospectively account for those adjustments. The Company does not anticipate that this ASU will have a material effect on its financial position or results of operations.