Robert H. Herz, chairman of the Financial Acunting Standards Board (FASB), today announced the addition of a new FASB agenda project aimed at establishing an overarching framework intended to make financial statement disclosures more effective, ordinated, and less rndant.

The project was added in response to requests and remmendations received from several nstituents, including the Investors Technical Advisory mittee (ITAC) and the SEC Advisory mittee on Improvements to Financial Reporting (CIFR).

“Many nstituents have expressed ncerns about so-called ‘disclosure overload,’” said Chairman Herz. “While clear and robust disclosures are essential to informative and transparent financial reporting—a critical mponent in maintaining investor nfidence in the markets—improving the way such disclosures are integrated can help decrease mplexity. The Board will embark on this project to create a principles-based disclosure framework that will enable mpanies to mmunicate more effectively with investors and also help eliminate rndancy or otherwise outdated GAAP disclosure requirements.”

Chairman Herz noted that the project objective is not intended to be “additive.” Rather, it will focus on developing a framework for improved GAAP disclosures. It is envisioned that this framework would enable all entities to focus on making more herent disclosures in their annual reporting package, move away from what some assert has beme a mpliance exercise, and perhaps facilitate XBRL electronic tagging of information.

Some specific financial reporting areas the project will evaluate and address include whether the disclosure framework should:

• Apply to all entities or perhaps exclude private or nonprofit entities
•  Apply to interim reporting
•  Focus only on high-level principles
• Focus only on notes to financial statements or extend to ways to better integrate information provided in financial statements, MD&A, and other parts of a mpany’s public reporting package.

The FASB expects to begin deliberations this quarter and plans to issue a preliminary views document in the first half of 2010.