Under the new standard, however, all leases, regardless of type, must be listed on the balance sheet, with the total lease payments recognized as a liability, and the right to use the leased item as an asset. 

When firms began to do this, average liabilities for reporting companies went from $4.4 million to $68.9 million as leases were first added to the balance sheet. Different sectors have been affected in different ways. For instance, financial institutions implementing the new standard saw their liabilities jump by 6,070 percent, likely a reflection of how often banks lease rather than buy locations for new branches. Following this was the health care sector, whose liabilities rose by 1,817 percent; restaurants, by 1,743 percent; energy companies, by 1,542 percent; retail, by 1,012 percent; and, finally, manufacturing, by 495 percent.