The Financial Accounting Standards Board is taking up a bit of spring cleaning with a proposed standard to shore up some loose ends on a number of accounting pronouncements.

The board proposed a standard to address some inconsistencies in certain pieces of accounting literature, to provide some clarifications, to eliminate some outdated guidance, and to make some miscellaneous technical corrections. The proposal rescinds FASB Technical Bulletin No. 01-1, which addresses the effective date for certain provisions of Financial Accounting Standard No. 140, Accounting for Transfers and Servicing of Financial Assets and Extinguishments of Liabilities. The proposed statement also would nullify guidance from the Emerging Issues Task Force, Topic No. D-67, which also relates to asset transfers, and Topic No. D-33, which addresses the timing of the recognition of certain tax benefits.

“I would characterize the proposed changes as housekeeping rather than substantive in nature,” says Bruce Pounder, president of education firm Leveraged Logic. The EITF topics in particular relate directly to practices at banking and financial institutions, where off-balance-sheet accounting has been criticized as part of the financial crisis, he notes. “Because the affected pronouncements are no longer applicable to such practices, I believe FASB simply wanted to eliminate distractions in existing GAAP as the board continues to address significant issues in this area of accounting,” he adds.

Carol Stacey, vice president at the SEC Institute, agrees the standard doesn’t address major, substantive change. “I don’t think [it is] significant,” she says. “Looks like clean up to me.”