U.S., International Groups Move in Tandem On Goodwill Accounting

U.S. and international accounting rules for the intangible assets that roiled the financials at Kraft Heinz Co. need to stay the same, the chiefs of the accounting rulemaking bodies said.

“We need to stay the course,” Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman Russell Golden said at a CFA Institute panel in New York. “And if we—collectively, both boards—believe we should change goodwill, we should change goodwill. And if we don’t then we shouldn’t.”

The FASB and its London-based counterpart, the International Accounting Standards Board, no longer move in lockstep to try to produce global accounting rules. The two boards, however, ...