By Steve BurkholderCompanies will continue to employ leases to meet their business aims even after the planned issuance later this year of accounting rules that will put lease-related assets and liabilities on balance sheets for the first time, a member of Financial Accounting Standards Board predicted.“I don't think there's going to be a move away from leasing as result of this,” FASB's said March 2 at a roundtable on lease accounting at New York University's Stern School of Business.Linsmeier cited business reasons for entering into leases that were described earlier at the roundtable by GE Capital's global technical controller, who also represented Financial Executives International.Those reasons, offered by GE's John Bober, include leases carrying benefits of flexibility; transfer of tax benefits; “100 percent financing”— “similar to debt but different”; management of obsolescence risk; and overall risk-shifting stemming from non-ownership of a leased asset.“There are unique aspects of leasing that are different from any purchase decisions,” Linsmeier said. “And if that's legitimate—we need it in the economy—why would that change as we go forward?”Many U.S. companies have told FASB that they will incur significant costs from systems and other changes stemming from tracking of their lease contracts. Depending on the timing of the effective date of FASB's leases rules, those tasks may have to be carried out even as the companies also prepare for the advent of far-reaching standards on revenue recognition.Benefits of Enhanced Focus on Leases In recent months, the board, which is aware of those concerns about the when of the standards' first use, has sought to lessen the expected implementation sting of the forthcoming leases rules.However, Linsmeier described benefits of an enhanced focus on companies' decision-making behind use of leases that he suggested would result from the new standard coming on line.“There's going to be processing costs with all these contracts,” the FASB member said. “But I think those processing costs might elevate better decisions” from a company's treasury shop “as to whether they're pricing the contracts” appropriately and whether lease terms are correct, Linsmeier said.FASB expects to issue its final standard on lease accounting by the end of the year. The...