A number of balance sheet items have changed as a result of declines in some banks' reported consolidations of variable interest entities (VIEs). Most of these declines reflect some banks' decisions to stop consolidating their VIEs in response to the announcement by the Financial Accounting Standards Board on October 9 that it had decided to defer the implementation of its Interpretation No. 46, Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities from the first reporting period beginning after June 15, 2003 to the first reporting period ending after December 15, 2003. For further information, please see the FASB website, www.fasb.org. In addition, a small part of the decline reflects a restructuring of some VIEs so that they no longer need to be consolidated on bank balance sheets. The balance sheet items affected are other securities, item 4, other loans and leases, item 12, and borrowings from others, item 24. Some of these changes extend back to July 2. Revised data for the H.8 statistical release are available on the Board's website, www.federalreserve.gov/releases.
