At issue is whether companies should be required to treat employee stock options as an expense.

"Recent events have served as a reminder to all of us that clear, credible and comparable financial information is essential to the health and vitality of our capital market system," commented FASB Chairman Robert Herz. "In the wake of the market meltdown and corporate reporting scandals, the FASB has received numerous requests from individual and institutional investors, financial analysts and many others urging the Board to mandate the expensing of the compensation cost relating to employee stock options."

Herz also noted that the change "would be consistent with the FASB's commitment to work toward convergence between U.S. and international accounting standards."

The FASB specifically sought input on the similarities and differences between the IASB proposal and the fair value approach under FASB Statement 123. While some differences exist between Statement 123 and the IASB's proposal, both approaches would recognize stock-based compensation as an expense at grant date by using a fair-value based method.

The board intends to begin deliberating the key issues on this subject at future public meetings.

While many companies have chosen to voluntarily expense stock options, including Coca-Cola, General Motors, and H&R Block, lawmakers and technology firms in particular have opposed the change.

Earlier this month, California Senator Barbara Boxer announced that a bipartisan group of senators is mapping out a strategy to prevent the FASB from possibly forcing companies to treat stock options as expenses.

"We can't stand by and let accountants wearing green eye-shades decide who is going to get the American Dream," she said at a luncheon on Capitol Hill for tech executives.

Separately, FASB decided to add a project to its agenda that would seek to improve disclosures relating to employer pension plans. FASB will address perceived deficiencies in current pension accounting by identifying ways to enhance disclosures about pension costs, plan assets, obligations and funding requirements.