2015

Year in review — 2015

30 Dec 2015

2015 was another successful year for the IAS Plus family with over 13 million page views. We've devoted significant resources to bring you comprehensive coverage of all things IFRS and broader financial reporting and other relevant topics and are pleased that our readers appreciate our efforts.

Season's Greetings

24 Dec 2015

We wish all our readers a peaceful holiday and all the best for the New Year.

We look forward to seeing you again after the holidays and to continue to be your preferred accounting website in 2016.

EFRAG draft comment letter on proposed amendments to address concerns about the different effective dates of IFRS 9 and the new insurance contracts standard

24 Dec 2015

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has issued a draft comment letter on the IASB exposure draft ED/2015/11 'Applying IFRS 9 'Financial Instruments' with IFRS 4 'Insurance Contracts' (Proposed amendments to IFRS 4)'.

EFRAG welcomes the IASB proposals. EFRAG believes that the temporary exemption from applying IFRS 9 addresses all the concerns relating to the misalignment of IFRS 9 and the new insurance contracts standard, while the overlay approach would only address the accounting mismatches. Nevertheless, EFRAG supports both approaches as complementary solutions.

While EFRAG believes the temporary exemption to address all concerns, EFRAG is also convinced that the exemption should be available to all entities that issue material insurance contracts within the scope of IFRS 4 in order to avoid an uneven playing field in the insurance sector. As the exemption should not capture material non-insurance activities, EFRAG is of the opinion that it should be available both at and below the reporting entity level. In order to achieve this, EFRAG suggests to base the exemption on one of the following approaches:

  • A widened ‘predominant activity’ criterion which is determined on a basis that is not limited to the issuance of contracts within the scope of IFRS 4. However, it would be set at a higher threshold than proposed by the IASB; or
  • A ‘regulated entity’ criterion which considers definitions from regulatory sources.

Finally, EFRAG agrees with the expiry date set for the temporary exemption from applying IFRS 9.

Comments on EFRAG's draft comment letter are requested by 20 January 2016. For more information, see the press release and the draft comment letter on the EFRAG website.

Summary of the CMAC November 2015 meeting

22 Dec 2015

The IASB has released a summary of the Capital Markets Advisory Committee (CMAC) meeting which was held in London on 6 November 2015.

The topics discussed at the meeting included:

  • 2015 agenda consultation
  • Goodwill and impairment
  • Trustees’ review of structure and effectiveness
  • Conceptual framework: measurement
  • IFRS 9 Financial Instruments: Education session on new impairment requirements
  • Disclosure initiative project: materiality practice statement

The next CMAC meeting will take place on 25 February 2016.

The full meeting summary is available on the IASB's website.

FASB to issue final standard on recognition and measurement of financial instruments in early January

22 Dec 2015

The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has announced that it plans to issue its final standard on the recognition and measurement of financial instruments during the first week of January 2016.

The FASB finished redeliberations related to its upcoming standard in November 2015 and directed the staff to proceed with drafting a final Accounting Standards Update for a vote by written ballot. Please click for the press release on the FASB website.

ICAEW thought paper on SME accounting requirements

22 Dec 2015

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has published 'SME Accounting Requirements: Basing Policy on Evidence'.

The paper look into how, if at all, financial reporting by SMEs should be regulated. The report looks at the costs and benefits (not only to the reporting entity but to society as a whole) of regulating SMEs’ financial reporting. It analyses why SMEs may require a different regime from other businesses and also includes a summary of the research on this topic to date. The paper concludes that the evidence available to date is insufficient to develop policies that are soundly based, and that a substantial programme of research is needed.

An executive summary and the full research paper are available from the ICAEW website.

FEE believes IASB needs to take a more active role in driving the broader corporate reporting agenda

22 Dec 2015

The Federation of European Accountants (Fédération des Experts-comptables Européens, FEE) has responded to the 'Request for Views' document the IASB published in August to launch its second agenda consultation.

Next to comments on project prioritisation, FEE suggests that the IASB takes a more active role in the broader corporate reporting agenda, including both financial and non-financial reporting, in order not to be pushed to the sidelines. FEE states:

The current focus on financial information only seems not to be sustainable over the long term as (primary) users are using other sources of information in their economic decision-making process, which might lead to a declining relevance and importance of financial statements.

FEE also links back to its October 2015 paper putting forward a new approach to corporate reporting that would see a "core" report and "more" reports.

Please click to access the comment letter on the FEE website.

2016 IFRS 'Blue Book' now available

21 Dec 2015

The IFRS Foundation has published '2016 IFRS Consolidated without early application' — the 'Blue Book'.

This volume contains all official pro­nounce­ments that are mandatory on 1 January 2016. It does not include IFRSs with an effective date after 1 January 2016.

The following are the main changes made since 1 January 2015:

The Blue Book sells for £72 plus shipping (academic, de­vel­op­ing country, and volume discounts apply). The pub­li­ca­tion can be purchased through the IASB web shop.

Please note that the IASB has already published editorial corrections to the Blue Book 2016 that show how to adjust the text of the book to remove those deferred September 2014 amendments to IAS 28 and IFRS 10, which are not now required for annual reporting periods beginning on 1 January 2016.

EFRAG, EFFAS, AIAF, and IASB issue summary of outreach event on profit or loss and OCI

21 Dec 2015

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS), the Associazione Italiana degli Analisti e Consulenti Finanziari (AIAF), and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have issued a summary report related to their joint outreach event held on 22 October 2015 related to Exposure Draft ED/2015/3 ‘Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting’.

Specifically, members of the panel and participants of the outreach event discussed how profit or loss (P&L) could become more useful and what the role of other comprehensive income (OCI) may be. The press release on the EFRAG website offers a summary of the main observations and access to the full report.

EFRAG TEG appointments and reappointments

21 Dec 2015

The Board of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has announced the appointment of four (new) members of its Technical Experts Group (TEG).

The new EFRAG TEG Members are Søren Kok Olsen, auditor from Denmark, and Nicolas de Paillerets, French preparer. Christian Chiarasini, French auditor, and Serge Pattyn, Belgian user, have been reappointed. In addition, Nicklas Grip, banking and financial instruments’ specialist from Sweden, has been appointed new TEG vice-Chair. All (re)appointments will run from 1 April 2016 when the new EFRAG TEG Chairman and EFRAG CEO will also take office.

Please click for the press release announcing the appointments on the EFRAG website.

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