Underscoring the growing demand for transparency in company reporting, Standard & Poor's, the leading provider of financial market intelligence, announced today the addition of new pension and postretirement data in its Compustat® database. The new content includes data items and new reports that provide details related to the funded benefits status that companies are now required to report based on the Financial Accounting Standards Board's (FASB) Statement of Financial Accounting No. 158 (SFAS 158). This major accounting change affects all publicly-traded companies with defined benefit plans and whose fiscal year end after Dec 15, 2006.

SFAS 158 moves the reporting of the funded status of defined benefit plans from a company's financial notes to its financial statements, thereby reflecting the real economics behind such plans. As a result, deferred items, such as 'actuarial gains/losses' and 'prior service costs', are now reported as net of income taxes in Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income. The adoption of this new standard has the potential to lead to a large erosion in Stockholders' Equity and also present significant comparability issues. Additionally, the new rule is expected to affect how companies account for their pension and OPEB plans, ranging from full funding to a total decrease in responsibility. (The official Summary of SFAS 158 is at http://www.fasb.org/st/summary/stsum158.shtml.)

"The development of our corporate pension accounting enhancements based on SFAS 158 is just another example of Compustat's ability to react and respond quickly to changes in the marketplace," said Charles Kessler, Financial Data Analyst for Standard & Poor's. "These updated items and reports have been designed to provide institutional investors and creditors with the information they need to examine and compare the impact of corporations' defined benefit plans."

Compustat added six new items that focus on current and long-term pension and postretirement data that will now be reported on the balance sheet. These are Pension - Long-term Asset, Pension - Current Liability, Pension - Long-term Liability, Postretirement - Long-term Asset, Postretirement - Current Liability and Postretirement - Long-term Liability. In addition, it has created new pension and postretirement reports and an updated Excel template for company screening and comparisons.

For more information, visit www.standardandpoors.com or call 800-523-4534.