Highlights include:

• The launch of a public consultation on long-term investment business model,
• Publishing of a draft comment letter on the IASB ED Financial Instruments: Expected Credit Losses,
• Publishing of a the draft comment letter on the IASB ED Defined Benefit Pension Plans: Employee Contributions,
• Approval of the feedback statement on the comment letter responding to the IASB ED Classification and Measurement: Limited Amendments to IFRS 9,
• Approval of the feedback statement on the comment letter responding to the IASB Review Draft IFRS 9 Chapter 6: Hedge Accounting.

Click for the EFRAG Update (link to EFRAG website).

The 2013 edition includes the amendments issued in October 2012 which define an investment entity and provide an exception to the consolidation requirements in IFRS 10.

This edition is available in the eIFRS Online Subscriber Area of the IASB's website for access by both Comprehensive and eIFRS subscribers. Also, it is made available for purchase via the IFRS web shop.

As certain major projects (for example revenue recognition) are expected to be completed soon, the FASB is free to reconsider its priorities and resource allocation. Stakeholders are therefore invited to prioritise and rank projects that are active FASB projects, currently halted FASB projects or not on the FASB's agenda at all yet.

Excluded from the survey are active agenda projects that the FASB expects complete by 3Q 2013, active agenda projects in which the FASB has issued an Exposure Draft (or expects to issue within 2Q 2013) and implementation projects that have an expected time frame for completion of less than one year.

Also excluded are the convergence projects that are part of the FASB-IASB Memorandum of Understanding. However, participants are asked to "[a]ssume that the direction of the use of international accounting standards in the U.S. is as outlined by the SEC staff to date". Nevertheless participants are also asked to weigh improvement and convergence if a trade-off is needed between improvement to US GAAP and convergence with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs).

The project descriptions included as an appendix to the survey offer detailed information on the projects (or potential projects) along with references to corresponding IASB projects where applicable. Among the IASB projects referred to are (some of these were added to the IASB agenda or reactivated as a result of the IASB's own agenda consultation in 2011):

• General hedge accounting and Macro hedge accounting (hedging is also an active FASB project)
• Conceptual framework (currently an inactive FASB project)
• Rate-regulated activities (not yet on the FASB agenda)
• Bearer plants (not yet on the FASB agenda)

Participants can choose between either a short-form or the full survey. As additional information a PDF version of the survey and of the project descriptions are also available. Responses are requested by 30 May 2013.

Please click for for the following information on the FASB website:

• Press release
• Access to the different forms of the survey and the PDF files

The IASB has also cancelled the education sessions originally scheduled for the previous week, and incorporated a short education session on revenue recognition into the agenda for the meeting.

The full agenda for the meeting, as of 10 May 2013, can be found here. We will post any updates to the agenda, and our Deloitte observer notes from the meeting, on this page as they are available.

IASB and ASBJ discussed the following topics:

• Financial instruments
• Insurance contracts
• Conceptual framework

Although the meeting series has ended, the IASB and ASBJ will continue to work closely together with regular communications. The ASBJ will support the IASB in its research projects and by providing secondees. Further, the ASBJ will continue its contributions to the standard-setting process through the ASAF.

A press release is available on the IASB website.

Tony de Bell, Reinhard Dotzlaw, and Martin Schloemer will begin their first three-year term on 1 July 2013, after which an additional three-year term may be renewed. Feilong Li’s second three-year term will also begin 1 July 2013. Andrew Watchman will begin serving his membership on the rotating seat on 1 July 2013, after his three-year term, Andrew Buchanan will take over the rotating seat on 1 July 2016.

Current members, Guido Fladt, Bernd Hacker, Andrew Vials, and Margaret Smyth will be departing the Committee.

The press release for this announcement is available on the IASB website.

Within the context of the IFRS for SMEs, the learning objectives of the Section 19 training module are designed to allow participants to:

• identify a business combination
• identify the acquirer in a business combination
• recognise and measure the cost of a business combination
• recognise and measure the identifiable assets acquired, the liabilities and contingent liabilities assumed and any non-controlling interest in the acquiree
• recognise and measure any goodwill acquired in a business combination or any gain on a bargain purchase
• account for goodwill after its initial recognition
• determine what information should be disclosed to enable users of the financial statements to evaluate the nature and financial effects of a business combination
• demonstrate an understanding of the significant judgements that are required in accounting for business combinations and goodwill.

Ultimately, the IFRS for SMEs training material will include 35 stand-alone modules – one for each section of the IFRS for SMEs. Currently, 33 modules are available, with the remaining two modules on section 12 (Additional Financial Instruments Issues) and section 26 (Share-based Payment) expected to be released in the coming months.

Most of the existing modules are also available in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish. The IFRS Foundation hopes to expand the number of languages in which the modules are available.

Please click for more information on the Section 19 training module or access all training modules on the IASB website (free registration is required to access the individual modules).

The European Commission green paper considers possible ways for supporting long-term investment and asks in one paragraph whether fair value accounting is or can be detrimental to long-term investment. At the same time the IASB has proposed limited scope amendments to IFRS 9 Financial Instruments that would introduce a 'fair value through other comprehensive income' (FVOCI) measurement category for particular financial assets thus indicating that fair value measurement and long-term horizons are not mutually exclusive.

Into the tension between those two positions EFRAG has launched its consultation to determine

• how a 'long-term investment' business model could be characterised in the context of financial reporting,
• whether this ‘long-term investment’ business model could be supported by objective evidence (and what the observable characteristics would be),
• whether the 'long-term investment' business model arrived at would be similar to long-term models found in practice (eg with insurance companies or pension funds), and lastly
• whether such a business model would justify specific accounting.

Results from the survey will be used to give feedback to the European Commission as well as the IASB. The EFRAG consultation closes on 25 June 2013.

Please click for:

• EFRAG press release (link to EFRAG website)
• Access to the EFRAG consultation on long-term investment activities (link to EFRAG website)
• More information about the European Commission green paper on long-term investment (link to EC website)
• Access to a Group of Thirty report 'Long-Term Finance and Economic Growth' that was considered during EFRAG's discussions leading up to publishing the consultation (link to Group of Thirty website)

In particular, the IASB will be using the survey to gather information from users on the proposed third category in IFRS 9 known as Fair Value through Other Comprehensive Income (FVOCI). The proposed FVOCI category was introduced by the IASB to better portray how financial assets are managed.

The IASB requests that all responses to the survey be received by 31 May 2013.

Click for:

• Access to the survey.
• Our story on the exposure draft.

The meeting will include discussions regarding the finalisation of tentative agenda decisions (IAS 10, IAS 28/IFRS 3, IAS 7, and IFRS 2) and further analysis on IFRS 3, IAS 19, IAS 28, IFRS 10, and IFRS 5. Also, discussions will be held on annual improvements, limited scope amendments to IFRSs, IFRS 2, and new issues concerning IAS 32, IFRS 7, and IFRS 13.

The tentative agenda is available on our meeting page.