NASBP is pleased to publish Jere Shawver’s article below, which describes a recent meeting of the Private Company Council (PCC)  and a discussion of three current topics emerging from the PCC agenda prioritization process.

By Jere Shawver, PCC Chair

I have enjoyed updating the NASBP membership on the work the Private Company Council (PCC) has been doing in 2025 to address the most pressing financial reporting issues affecting private companies and private company stakeholders. We truly appreciate NASBP’s interest and engagement with us. In case you are not familiar with the PCC, I wanted to share a little bit about our history, composition, and focus. The PCC was established in 2012 by the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) to advise the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on private company financial accounting and reporting issues.

The PCC’s membership includes users of private company financial statements including sureties, banks, lessors, and other creditors; controllers, chief financial officers, and other accounting-related personnel who regularly produce financial statements; and certified public accountants who provide audit and other forms of assurance on financial statements. The PCC advises the FASB on many projects and evaluates accounting standards for private company alternatives. We use a structured process to evaluate our agenda priorities. That process is designed to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the PCC by regularly assessing the most pressing financial reporting issues affecting private companies. Here are updates about the September 2025 Meeting.

September 2025 Meeting Update
I would like to provide an update on Agenda Priorities discussed at our September 2025 meeting, which included the PCC’s annual liaison meeting with the AICPA Technical Issues Committee (TIC). The PCC discussed research on three current topics emerging from its agenda prioritization process:
• Lease accounting simplifications
• Subjective acceleration clauses
• Interest method and determining the effective interest rate.

Of those three current priorities, the PCC will continue working on the first two topics. The PCC has paused its research on the final area to focus more broadly on other debt related issues, namely those related to debt modifications, which is an area that the PCC identified as a priority to research for private company simplifications.

Lease Accounting Simplifications
The PCC has a leases working group comprised of PCC members, FASB staff, and TIC members. The working group is conducting research to determine if there are opportunities for further private company simplifications of the lease accounting guidance. At the PCC’s September meeting, members discussed key takeaways from the July 2025 working group meeting and expressed support for undertaking research from a lessee perspective on an optional single lease accounting model, embedded leases, and lease modifications. PCC members also briefly discussed other areas related to lease accounting, including low value leases, weighted-average lease disclosures, and related party lease disclosures. PCC members expressed the need for the working group to conduct further outreach with private company financial statement users and other private company stakeholders. The working group will meet to discuss next steps.

Subjective Acceleration Clauses
PCC members discussed the staff’s research on subjective acceleration clauses in private company debt arrangements and provided preliminary observations on potential private company solutions. The PCC concluded that this issue should continue to be pursued as a current agenda priority with a focus on further outreach with financial statement users and other private company stakeholders. The PCC will continue to explore this issue at future meetings.

FASB’s Agenda Consultation
In addition, the PCC provided feedback to the FASB on areas for future standard setting consideration in connection with the Board’s Agenda Consultation Research Project. The PCC also advised the Board on several other FASB projects, including:
• Accounting for Debt Exchanges
• Accounting for and Disclosure of Intangibles
• Financial Key Performance Indicators for Business Entities.

TIC and Upcoming Liaison Meetings
During its September 2025 annual liaison meeting with the TIC, the PCC and the TIC discussed areas of mutual interest. The PCC has several liaison meetings planned for Q4 2025 with different private company stakeholder groups including users, practitioners, and preparers and a Q1 2026 liaison meeting scheduled with the members and staff of the  NASBP and the Surety and Fidelity Association of America (SFAA). The next PCC meeting is scheduled for December.

Final Thoughts
As I mentioned, we truly appreciate NASBP’s interest in and engagement with the PCC. It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to share some thoughts with you. To learn more about the PCC and the work we do, please visit www.fasb.org/pcc. If you have any questions you would like to raise with us or if you have an interest in becoming more involved as either a member of the PCC, a PCC working group, or in research on specific FASB or PCC initiatives, please email us through the “Contact Us” portion of our webpage at https://www.fasb.org/page/PageContent?pageId=/about-us/advisory-groups/pcc/contact-us.html

The views expressed in this article are those of Jere Shawver only. Official positions of the PCC and the FASB on accounting matters are determined only after extensive public due process and deliberation.

PCC Chair Jere Shawver has over 40 years of experience advising companies on financial reporting, accounting, and business matters, across a wide range of industries including manufacturing and distribution, construction and real estate, higher education, hospitality, government contracting, and technology. He retired in May 2025 as Chief Executive Officer of Baker Tilly US, LLP, where he was responsible for managing the assurance practice and risk management, including the Office of the General Counsel.