April

Our summary of new and revised accounting pronouncements for March 2012

03 Apr 2012

We've updated our 'summary of new and amended pronouncements' document to provide a high level overview of new and revised accounting pronouncements that should be considered for financial reporting periods ending on or after 31 March 2012.

The resource provides a brief summary of each pronouncement, and indicates whether it must be mandatorily applied for the first time at 31 March 2012, or whether it may be optionally applied, for various quarter ends. This information can be used to ensure that all new financial reporting requirements have been fully considered in the reporting close process.

The information reflects developments to 28 March 2012 and will be updated through to June 2012, after which we'll produce an edition for June 2012 reporting. We'll include a permanent link to the most recent edition of the resource in the right-hand panel of our standards page. The summary is also available for financial reporting periods ending on 31 December 2011 and 30 September 2011.

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IPSASB exposure draft on financial statement discussion and analysis for the public sector

03 Apr 2012

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) has published Exposure Draft (ED) 47, 'Financial Statement Discussion and Analysis'.

The material presented in the Exposure Draft is proposed to be developed as an International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS), with the same level of authority as the accrual based IPSASs.

The proposed new IPSAS Standard would apply to all public sector entities other than government business enterprises. These entities would be required to issue the financial statement discussion and analysis when it issues financial statements.

The financial statement discussion and analysis would be identified clearly, distinguished from the financial statements, and would apply the same qualitative characteristics as govern the preparation of financial statements.

Comments are requested by 31 July 2012.  Click for IPSASB press release (link to IFAC website).

Outcomes from sixth IFRS Regional Policy Forum

02 Apr 2012

A communiqué has been released from the sixth IFRS Regional Policy Forum held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 26-27 March 2012.

The Malaysian Accounting Standards Board (“MASB”) hosted the forum, which is designed to be one of the key platforms in the Asian Oceanian region for stakeholders including regulators, to discuss IFRS related policy issues.

Representatives from 22 jurisdictions attended - Australia, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, China, Dubai, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Korea, Macao, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Syria, Thailand and Vietnam. Hans Hoogervorst (IASB Chairman), Ian Mackintosh (IASB Vice Chairman), Jeffrey Lucy, (IFRS Foundation Trustee), Charles Macek (IFRS Advisory Vice Chairman) and  three other IASB Board members also attended the Forum.

In a keynote address by Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar, Chairman, Securities Commission Malaysia, it was noted that the availability of resources is a key implementation challenge and requires regional and international cooperation to make available experts, financial assistance, build capacity and enhance education. The establishment of the Asian-Oceanian Standard-Setters Group (AOSSG) has been pivotal in facilitating such closer regional collaboration.   It is now also appropriate for IASB to bring Islamic finance into its agenda and ensure the development and implementation of  IFRS  accommodate the needs of this sector.

The Communiqué also includes discussion of:

  • A reaffirmed commitment to adoption of IFRS recognising that for some jurisdictions this is achieved via a process of converging.  It was also noted that full global and regional adoption will take time, especially as stakeholders try to cope with a rapid pace of change in IFRS
  • An expression of appreciation to the IASB for its efforts in conducting a thorough and comprehensive consultation on its future agenda
  • Participants agreed that in working towards a set of globally accepted accounting standards, regulators have to work together not only with IASB but also with their national standard setters and regional standard setting bodies to better align local policies with these international standards and to integrate the requirements of the standards into the
    domestic legal framework
  • It was also acknowledged that for IFRS to be accepted globally, the standards have to be endorsed, implemented, audited and enforced on a consistent basis.

The next meeting of the IFRS Regional Policy Forum is expected to be held in Hong Kong in 2013.

Click for access to the Communiqué (link to MASB website)

FASB Chairman testimony to U.S. House committee

02 Apr 2012

On 28 March 2012, Leslie Seidman, Chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, provided testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises. During the testimony, Ms. Seidman covered a wide range of topics and outlined possible completion dates for a number of joint IASB-FASB projects.

Ms. Seidman provided a summary of the role, mission and oversight of the FASB, provided an outline of the standard-setting process and its due process steps, and outlined recently completed and pending projects of the FASB.

In discussing the four key IASB-FASB convergence projects, Ms. Seidman noted:

  • Revenue - Based on the current plan, Ms. Seidman expects the issue of a converged new standard in the first quarter of 2013 (depending on constituent feedback)
  • Leases - Ms. Seidman noted constituent concerns about the income statement effects resulting from the proposed right-of-use model, the additional outreach activities being undertaken in various areas, and an expectation of a final standard in mid-2013
  • Financial instruments - Ms. Seidman discussed the various components of this project, differences in views between the FASB and IASB, and discussed the FASB project on repurchase agreements (repos)
  • Insurance - Ms. Seidman noted the FASB and the IASB are at different points in the process on the insurance contracts project, as the FASB has not issued an exposure draft (which is expected in the second half of 2012).

Ms Seidman also discussed the wider calls for convergence, private company accounting, not-for-profit accounting, the FASB codification, XBRL, and the FASB's joint project with EFRAG on developing a disclosure framework to address constituent concerns about disclosure overload or, often, disclosure ineffectiveness.

Click for access to the testimony (link to FASB website).

Business Accounting Council of Japan discussions on IFRS

01 Apr 2012

The Business Accounting Council of Japan (BAC) met on 29 March 2012 to continue planned deliberations over the possible use of IFRS in Japan. No decisions were made at the session but a number of topics were discussed.

The principal topics discussed at the meeting were:

  • Nonpublic and medium to small companies - members generally preferred local accounting guidance rather than the use of the IFRS for SMEs
  • Audits of IFRS financial statements - the Japanese Institute of CPAs explained an outline of audits of IFRS financial statements, followed by requests and questions to auditors and regulators such as introducing pre-clearance procedures.

The handouts (in Japanese only) are available on the Financial Services Agency website.

The next meeting of the BAC is scheduled for 17 April 2012.

Correction list for hyphenation

These words serve as exceptions. Once entered, they are only hyphenated at the specified hyphenation points. Each word should be on a separate line.