New Accounting Standards

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2022

New Accounting Standards [Abstract]

New Accounting Standards

3.NEW ACCOUNTING STANDARDS

Accounting Standards Pending Adoption

Reference Rate Reform – Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting.  In March 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued guidance to provide temporary optional expedients and exceptions to the guidance in GAAP on contract modifications and hedge accounting to ease the financial reporting burdens related to the expected market transition from the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) and other interbank offered rates to alternative reference rates, such as the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”).  One-week and two-month U.S. dollar LIBOR settings as well as all non-U.S. dollar LIBOR settings stopped being published on December 31, 2021, while the remaining U.S. dollar LIBOR settings will be discontinued on June 30, 2023.  Under the new guidance, entities can elect not to apply certain modification accounting requirements to contracts affected by reference rate reform, if certain criteria are met.  An entity that makes this election would not have to remeasure the contracts at the modification date or reassess a previous accounting determination.  Under the guidance, entities can also elect various optional expedients that would allow them to continue applying hedge accounting for hedging relationships affected by reference rate reform, if certain criteria are met.

The guidance was effective upon issuance.  The guidance on contract modifications was applied prospectively from March 12, 2020.  The guidance on hedging is applied to eligible hedging relationships existing as of the beginning of the

interim period that includes the effective date and to new eligible hedging relationships entered into after the beginning of that interim period.  The relief is temporary and generally cannot be applied to contract modifications that occur after December 31, 2022 or hedging relationships entered into or evaluated after that date.  However, certain optional expedients can be applied to hedging relationships evaluated in periods after December 31, 2022.  

The Company determined that the new guidance will not have a material effect on its consolidated financial statements.  The Company had a combined $1,251,000 of U.S. LIBOR based loans as of September 30, 2022. The Company estimates that if the reference rate for these loans had transitioned from LIBOR to SOFR as of September 30, 2022, the impact to annual interest expense would have been immaterial.  

In October 2022, the Company adopted the applicable practical expedients of the standard when it converted the option of a LIBOR interest rate in its Credit Agreement to a SOFR interest rate and correspondingly amended its five interest rate swap agreements that are specifically designated to the amended Credit Agreement.  As permitted by the practical expedients in the standard, the Company maintained cash flow hedge accounting for its interest rate swap agreements as the conversion of the LIBOR interest rate to SOFR was the only modification to the interest rate swap agreements.  See Notes 10 and 19 for further details on the amendment to the Credit Agreement.