Handbook: Transfers and servicing of financial assets

Download PDF

Our in-depth guide explains how to account for transfers of financial assets – including presentation and disclosures – using Q&As and examples to address common questions and transactions that we see in practice. This 2026 edition includes new and updated interpretations based on our experience with companies applying ASC 860.

Applicability

All entities with transfers of financial assets

Relevant dates

Effective immediately

In the decades since the FASB first developed its guidance on transfers of financial assets, the capital markets – and the types of transfers that take place in them – have continued to evolve.

The accounting guidance has evolved as well, although the core principles have remained intact: a transaction is recognized as a sale when a financial asset has been transferred and control has been surrendered; and following a sale, a company measures both the benefits it controls and the resulting obligations.

This model is well-established, but the continued evolution of transactions involving transfers of financial assets often pushes the profession to make critical judgments about the application of the guidance.

We want to help you make those critical judgments.

In this Handbook, we navigate scope, deconstruct the sale criteria, and describe the accounting for both sales and secured borrowings. We seek to demystify securitization transactions and how to analyze repurchase agreements and securities lending. We also address the accounting for servicing assets and liabilities.