During the period 1974–77 firms affected by Statement 8 of the Financial Accounting Standards Board dealing with foreign currency translation responded to the FASB's invitation to comment. In this study, the reported exchange gains and losses of firms that submitted comments to the FASB and a broad sample of multi‐national companies are examined. There is limited evidence that FASB respondents suffered greater swings in pretax earnings as a result of FASB than did other multination