This book is aimed at professionals engaged in preparing, analysing, and interpreting financial information prepared in accordance with the Hong Kong financial reporting framework. Financial Reporting in Hong Kong:

• Deals comprehensively with Hong Kong Financial Reporting Standards (HKFRSs) and other pronouncements issued up to 31 August 2007, including those that are not yet mandatory
• Addresses the legal and regulatory requirements of Hong Kong's financial reporting environment
• Includes a high-level comparison between HKFRSs and both pre-2007 PRC GAAP and new Chinese Accounting Standards that became effective for listed companies in 2007.

Financial Reporting in Hong Kong may be purchased through your contact at Deloitte or through CCH Online or by phone at +852 800 968 667 or by email: support@cch.com.hk (cite product code 1779H).

 

IFRIC D23 would apply to all types of distributions of non-cash assets with one exception. It would not apply to a distribution of an asset to another entity within the same consolidated group. IFRIC D23 proposes that all types of distributions of non-cash assets would be measured at the fair value of the assets distributed. Therefore:

IFRIC D23 proposes: When an entity incurs an obligation to distribute non-cash assets to its owners (a dividend payable), it should measure the obligation at the fair value of the non-cash assets. When an entity settles the dividend payable, it should recognise any difference between the carrying amount of the assets distributed and the carrying amount of the dividend payable in profit or loss.

The Interpretation, if finalised, would apply prospectively, that is, to future distributions. The deadline for comments is 25 April 2008.

Click for:

• Press Release (PDF 44k).
• More Information about IFRIC D23

 

Customer contributions are transactions in which an entity – the 'access provider' – receives an asset it uses to provide access to an ongoing supply of goods or services to a customer or customers. In some cases, the access provider receives cash that it must use to acquire or construct the asset that will provide access.

 

IFRIC D24 proposes: All access providers (recipients of customer contributions) will be required to recognise contributed assets and revenue from providing access to a supply of goods or services over the period access is provided Those access providers that have previously not recognised contributed assets will now recognise increased property, plant, and equipment and revenue Those access providers that have previously recognised revenue immediately on the receipt of a contributed asset may now be required to recognise it over a longer period.

IFRIC D24 would be applied prospectively. The deadline for comments is 25 April 2008.

Click for:

• Press Release (49k)
• More Information about IFRIC D24

 

The amendments are as follows:

• Vesting conditions are service conditions and performance conditions only.  Other features of a share-based payment are not vesting conditions. Under IFRS 2, features of a share-based payment that are not vesting conditions should be included in the grant date fair value of the share-based payment. The fair value also includes market-related vesting conditions.
• All cancellations, whether by the entity or by other parties, should receive the same accounting treatment. Under IFRS 2, a cancellation of equity instruments is accounted for as an acceleration of the vesting period. Therefore any amount unrecognised that would otherwise have been charged is recognised immediately. Any payments made with the cancellation (up to the fair value of the equity instruments) is accounted for as the repurchase of an equity interest. Any payment in excess of the fair value of the equity instruments granted is recognised as an expense.

The Board had proposed the amendment in an exposure draft issued on 2 February 2006. The amendment is effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2009, with earlier application permitted.

Click for Press Release (PDF 47k).

 

During the verification period, constituents are encouraged to use the online Codification Research System free of charge to research accounting issues and provide feedback on whether the Codification content accurately reflects existing US GAAP for nongovernmental entities. The Codification includes all accounting standards issued by a standard-setter within levels A through D of the current US GAAP hierarchy, including FASB, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF), and related literature. Click for:

• Press Release (PDF 25k)
• Link to On-Line Codification (free registration is required)

 

This publication provides a set of sample financial statements of a typical listed company in Singapore, and includes illustrations of the various disclosures required by the Singapore Companies Act, SGX-ST Listing Manual, and Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (FRSs) and Singapore Interpreations (INT FRSs). Click to download Singapore Illustrative Financial Statements 2007 (PDF 636k, 136 pages).

 

The report, which is addressed to the US Congress with copies to various Federal agencies, examines:

1. concentration in the market for public company audits,
2. the potential for smaller accounting firms' growth to ease market concentration, and
3. proposals that have been offered by others for easing concentration and the barriers facing smaller firms in expanding their market shares.

The GAO found that "although the market for small public company audits has become much less concentrated since 2002, the continuing concentration in the market for larger public companies limits these companies' auditor choices but does not appear to have significantly affected audit fees." The report concludes:

In light of limited evidence that the currently concentrated market for large public company audits has created significant adverse impact and the general lack of any proposals that were clearly seen as effective in addressing the risks of concentration or challenges facing smaller firms without serious drawbacks, we found no compelling need to take action. As a result, this report does not include any recommendations.

Click to download the GAO Report on Concentration in Audit Market for Large Public Companies (PDF 2,501k). Here is GAO's One-page Synopsis (PDF 92k).

 

Comment deadline is 15 April 2008. Click for Press Release (PDF 36k).

 

The IVSC has begun work to develop an International Valuation Standard on the topic.

Click to view the discussion paper (PDF 916k).

 

Chairman Cox's remarks covered three broad issues arising from the growing integration of the world's capital markets:

• IFRSs as the single, world-wide accounting standard [an excerpt is in the box below]
• the synergies between IFRSs and XBRL in making financial information understandable to investors and creditors globally
• the need for globally coordinated regulation of cross-border activities of broker-dealers and securities markets.

Our policy work on IFRS is currently focused on evaluating its potential role in the US capital markets. This is the logical culmination of work the Commission has been doing ever since we tackled the problem of the divergence of national accounting standards in 1981, by instituting the US GAAP reconciliation requirement in the first place. At the time, the Commission thought the reconciliation requirement was a temporary solution, while the real solution lay in reducing the divergence itself. We've carried the mantle of convergence ever since. That's why our recent decision to accept IFRS financial statements in SEC filings was crafted in such a way as to support the efforts of the IASB, and many other nations, to establish IFRS as a single, global set of standards, and not so many national flavors.

Click to view International Business – An SEC Perspective (PDF 74k).