Companies sponsoring multi-employer pension plans—meaning a pension plan along with other post-employment benefits—likely will have some new disclosures required for their 2010 financial statements.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has opened a project that they plan to pursue on a fast-track basis to get guidance out in time for 2010 year-end financial reporting. The plan is to establish some new disclosure requirements for companies that participate in multi-employer pension plans to draw out more information on contribution requirements and other liabilities that aren’t entirely clear under existing rules, said FASB Chairman Bob Herz.

Users of financial statements have told the board “they don’t believe they’re getting sufficient disclosure related to a company’s participation in multi-employer plans in terms of the potential for increasing contributions, the total liabilities, and other matters related to those plans,” said Herz in announcing his decision to FASB to pursue the new requirements. Constituents have told FASB that especially during the recent spell of deteriorated economic conditions, they don’t sense they’re getting a complete picture of the liabilities on a timely basis as companies adhere to existing reporting requirements.

FASB is not pursuing the project jointly with the International Accounting Standards Board. However, the board said it will consider convergence with international rules by taking into account the disclosures about multi-employer plans that IASB is considering in its ongoing project on post-employment benefits, including pensions.

FASB staff told the board they planned to work quickly on the project to target deliberations in April and a final update to the Accounting Standards Codification in the fall—in plenty of time for companies to learn the new disclosure requirements and assure they are ready to comply with them for 2010 financial statements.