The proposed changes address how to group individual recognised items into line items and subtotals and clarify the relationships among assets, liabilities, and equity, along with the effects of related changes on comprehensive income and cash flows.

Originally, the IASB and the FASB decided to review and revise their conceptual frameworks together, however, changed priorities and the slow progress in the project led to the project being abandoned in 2010. In 2012, the IASB reactivated the conceptual framework project as an IASB only project given the multitude of open conceptual issues it is facing in many of its current projects. In May 2015, the IASB published an exposure draft of a new Conceptual Framework in which Chapter 7 Presentation and disclosure discussed concepts that determine what information is included in the financial statements and how that information should be presented and disclosed. In parallel, the IASB is conducting a primary financial statements project examining possible changes to the structure and content of the primary financial statements. The project is in the stage of early research and was last discussed in May 2016.

For more in­for­ma­tion on the new FASB exposure draft, see the press release, a FASB in Focus newsletter, and the ED on the FASB’s website.