NEW ACCOUNTING STANDARDS

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

NEW ACCOUNTING STANDARDS [Abstract]

NEW ACCOUNTING STANDARDS

In December 2011, Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued the Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No 2011-12 Comprehensive Income (Topic 220) Deferral of the Effective Date for Amendments to the Presentation of Reclassifications of Items Out of Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income in Accounting Standards Update No. 2011-05. In order to defer only those changes in Update 2011-05 that relate to the presentation of reclassification adjustments, the paragraphs in this Update supersede certain pending paragraphs in Update 2011-05. The amendments are being made to allow the Board time to redeliberate whether to present on the face of the financial statements the effects of reclassifications out of accumulated other comprehensive income on the components of net income and other comprehensive income for all periods presented. While the Board is considering the operational concerns about the presentation requirements for reclassification adjustments and the needs of financial statement users for additional information about reclassification adjustments, entities should continue to report reclassifications out of accumulated other comprehensive income consistent with the presentation requirements in effect before Update 2011-05. Public entities should apply these requirements for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2011. The adoption of ASU 2011-05 and ASU 2011-12 did not have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.

In December 2011, FASB issued the ASU No. 2011-10 Property, Plant, and Equipment (Topic 360) Derecognition of in Substance Real Estate-a Scope Clarification. Under the amendments in this Update, when a parent (reporting entity) ceases to have a controlling financial interest (as described in Subtopic 810-10) in a subsidiary that is in substance real estate as a result of default on the subsidiary’s nonrecourse debt, the reporting entity should apply the guidance in Subtopic 360-20 to determine whether it should deregognize the in substance real estate. Generally, a reporting entity would not satisfy the requirements to derecognize the in substance real estate before the legal transfer of the real estate to the lender and the extinguishment of the related nonrecourse indebtedness. That is, even if the reporting entity ceases to have a controlling financial interest under Subtopic 810-10, the reporting entity would continue to include the real estate, debt, and the results of the subsidiary’s operations in its consolidated financial statements until legal title to the real estate is transferred to legally satisfy the debt.The amendments in this Update are effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning on or after June 15, 2012. The adoption of ASU 2011-10 did not have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.

In September 2011, FASB issued the ASU No. 2011-08 Intangibles – Goodwill and Other (Topic 350) Testing Goodwill for Impairment. Under the amendments in this Update, an entity has the option to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether the existence of events or circumstances leads to a determination that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. If an entity determines it is not more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount, then performing the two-step impairment test is unnecessary. However, if an entity concludes otherwise, then it is required to perform the first step of the two-step impairment test by calculating the fair value of the reporting unit and comparing the fair value with the carrying amount of the reporting unit, as described in paragraph 350-20-35-4. If the carrying amount of a reporting unit exceeds its fair value, then the entity is required to perform the second step of the goodwill impairment test to measure the amount of the impairment loss, if any, as described in paragraph 350-20-35-9.  Under the amendments in this Update, an entity has the option to bypass the qualitative assessment for any reporting unit in any period and proceed directly to performing the first step of the two-step goodwill impairment test. An entity may resume performing the qualitative assessment in any subsequent period. The amendments are effective for annual and interim goodwill impairment tests performed for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2011. The adoption of ASU 2011-08 did not have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.

In October 2010, the FASB issued the ASU No. 2010-26 Consolidations (Topic 944) Financial Services-Insurance. The amendments in this Update specify that the following costs incurred in the acquisition of new and renewal contracts should be capitalized in accordance with the amendments in this Update: 1. Incremental direct costs of contract acquisition. Incremental direct costs are those costs that result directly from and are essential to the contract transaction(s) and would not have been incurred by the insurance entity had the contract transaction(s) not occurred. 2. Certain costs related directly to Underwriting, policy issuance and processing, medical and inspection, and sales force contract selling performed by the insurer for the contract. The costs related directly to those activities include only the portion of an employee’s total compensation (excluding any compensation that is capitalized as incremental direct costs of contract acquisition) and payroll-related fringe benefits related directly to time spent performing those activities for actual acquired contracts and other costs related directly to those activities that would not have been incurred if the contract had not been acquired. All other acquisition-related costs—including costs incurred by the insurer for soliciting potential customers, market research, training, administration, unsuccessful acquisition or renewal efforts, and product development—should be charged to expense as incurred. Administrative costs, rent, depreciation, occupancy, equipment, and all other general overhead costs are considered indirect costs and should be charged to expense as incurred. If the initial application of the amendments in this Update results in the capitalization of acquisition costs that had not been capitalized previously by an entity, the entity may elect not to capitalize those types of costs. The amendments in this Update do not affect the guidance in paragraphs 944-30-25-4 through 25-5, which prohibits the capitalization of certain costs incurred in obtaining universal life-type contracts. The amendments in this update are effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2011. The amendments in this update should be applied prospectively upon adoption. The adoption of ASU 2010-26 did not have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.