Budget Impasse May Block Accounting Of Thrift Fund Bailout on '95 Books

and thrifts from booking their share of the thrift insurance fund rescue in this year's financial statements. "A lot of institutions want to accrue it this year," said Diane Casey, national director of financial institutions regulatory issues for Grant Thornton. But, she added, "you cannot accrue it until the legislation is enacted." House and Senate conferees have agreed on the details of a plan to fix the Savings Association Insurance Fund, but that legislation is part of a broader budget reconciliation bill that may not be enacted until next year. And institutions with savings fund deposits must include the cost of capitalizing the fund in their financial statements for the quarter during which the budget bill is enacted, the staff of the Financial Accounting Standards Board said early this month. Some banks and thrifts had also been hoping to report the $6 billion savings fund fee as an extraordinary item so it wouldn't lower their income from continuing operations and possibly confuse stock analysts. But at the November meeting of the accounting profession's Emerging issues Task Force, standards board staff members said the fee should be reported as a component of operating income - not as an extraordinary item. Standards board staffers also said the $1.5 billion refund paid to Bank Insurance Fund members in September should be reported as a component of operating income. The bank fund refund should be included in financial statements for the quarter when it was announced. If those quarterly reports are already out, banks should include the refund income in the following quarter.