Investors Rebuffed in Quest for More Detailed Income Statements

U.S. accounting rulemakers won’t require companies to provide more detailed income statements—a top, repeated request from investors and analysts—anytime soon.

A 5-2 majority of the Financial Accounting Standards Board voted Dec. 11 to put its once-high priority financial reporting project on pause until it completes a separate, but related, effort to make companies improve the details they provide about their operating segments.

FASB member Harold Schroeder, a former investor, said analysts increasingly want more information about companies on a segment-by-segment level and, “More detail on the segment level is the bigger bang for the buck, if you will.”

• FASB ...