Nearly half of community banks in the U.S. have not formed a task force for implementing current expected credit loss accounting standards, which is expected to take effect in just two years.

That’s according to a flash poll conducted by the Philadelphia-based law firm Baker Tilly Virchow Krause.

“There are several segments within banking institutions that will be affected by CECL,” Ivan Cilik, CPA and a partner in Baker Tilly’s financial services practice group, said in a statement. “Although CECL is an accounting standard, it is important to ensure professionals outside of the finance department, including underwriting, risk, compliance and other operational personnel within the bank are included in the implementation process.”

“The CECL standard requires organizations to consider quantitative and qualitative factors within their institution’s CECL methodology,” Richard Sauerwein, director in Baker Tilly’s forensic, litigation and valuation consulting practice group, said in a statement. “By including multiple departments in the implementation process, qualitative factors such as underwriting standard changes, economic and business condition forecasts, new legal and regulatory requirements and other qualitative considerations that may not be known to the finance and accounting departments can be included in the chosen estimation method.”

Published by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in June 2016, CECL is a new accounting standard that will change how financial institutions account for expected credit losses. Following the financial crisis, much of the immediate focus by regulators and supervisory authorities was on recapitalizing institutions and guarding against systemic risk with an increased focus on stress testing as the preferred tool to protect the global economy from further erosion.

The impact of FASB’s CECL standards is expected to be significant with overall expected credit loss reserve levels anticipated to increase by as much as 35 percent to 50 percent by some estimates.