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31 May 2001: Agenda for IASB's June meeting
IASB has announced the topics, but not yet the running order, for its upcoming meeting on 26-28 June:
- Banks and Financial Institutions - discussion
- Business Combinations - preliminary discussion (continued)
- Measurement - preliminary discussion
- Preface to the Standards - consideration of revised draft
- Reporting Financial Performance - discussion of reporting models
- Technical Agenda - further discussion
- Transition to IAS as the Primary Basis of Accounting - discussion
- Administrative Items
31 May 2001: IASB will relocate next week
IASB will relocate next week to new offices at 30 Cannon Street, London EC4M 6XH. Publications production and distribution staff will remain at the current Fleet Street facility. The June Board meeting will be at the Cannon Street office.
30 May 2001: Preliminary report of IASB's May Board meeting
We have moved the summary of discussions at the May IASB meeting to its own page. Click to go to Summary of IASB's 22-25 May 2001 Meeting. It had originally been presented as several lengthy news items.
29 May 2001: Adoption of IAS proposed in Singapore
Earlier this month, the Disclosure and Accounting Standards Committee (DASC), an independent committee formed to propose changes to the financial reporting and disclosure requirements in Singapore, recommended that from 1 January 2003 all Singapore companies adopt IASB standards. They also recommended that listed Singapore incorporated companies be allowed to use alternative standards, as allowed by the Singapore Exchange, without reconciliation, if they are also listed on foreign exchanges that require these standards.
27 May 2001: Four IAS-based IPSAS are approved
At its meeting earlier this month, IFAC's Public Sector Committee (PSC) approved four final International Public Sector Accounting Standards that are based on IAS: IPSAS 9, Revenue from Exchange Transactions (based on IAS 18); IPSAS 10, Inventories (based on IAS 2); IPSAS 11, Construction Contracts (based on IAS 11); and IPSAS 12, Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies (based on IAS 29). A fifth standard, IPSAS 13, Leases (based on IAS 17) was approved subject to a final editorial review. Click for a copy of the May 2001 Public Sector Committee Update Newsletter (35k PDF). Click for More Info about the PSC.
19 May 2001: Comment deadline nears on four IAS-based IPSAS
There's a 31 May comment deadline on four exposure drafts of International Public Sector Accounting Standards that are based on IAS: ED 16, Events After the Reporting Date; ED 17, Segment Reporting; ED 18, Financial Instruments: Disclosure and Presentation; and ED 19, Investment Property. Link to
Public Sector Committee Website.
18 May 2001: Country updates added for Europe, South Africa
The Country Updates on this website have been expanded to include Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Russian Federation, South Africa, and United Kingdom.
18 May 2001: Europe-Africa IASPlus Newsletter Now Available
We have developed a Europe-Africa Edition of IASPlus. This newsletter, to be published quarterly on this website, will have regional news and country updates. Click to download the May 2001 Edition (217k PDF).
17 May 2001: European Parliament amends Directives to allow IAS 39
On 15 May, the European Parliament amended the 4th and 7th Directives (European laws) to require listed companies to follow IAS 39 by reporting certain financial assets and liabilities at fair value in their annual consolidated financial statements. Member States would have the option of permitting non-listed companies also to adopt IAS 39. The amended Directives still must be approved by the European Council of Ministers, who will consider the matter on 31 May, and then enacted the Member State level. Banks and other financial institutions are not exempted from the amended Directives – Parliament modified the Commission's recommended legislation in this regard.
The legislation includes a number of differences with IAS 39. For instance, where IAS 39 allows companies to adopt a policy of reporting changes in fair values of available-for-sale financial instruments in net profit or loss or in equity, the European legislation allows member states to require that the value change be reported only in equity.
Click for More Information including the adopted text.
16 May 2001: Comments about IASB in FAF/FASB 2000 annual report
We have posted an Excerpt from the FAF/FASB Annual Report for 2000 relating to the formation of the IASB.
11 May 2001: Harvey Pitt nominated as next SEC chairmanUS President Bush has nominated Harvey Pitt, partner in the New York law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson and former SEC General Counsel, as the next chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Senate confirmation is required. A key task facing the next SEC chairman is follow-up on the SEC's Concepts Release on the use of International Accounting Standards in the SEC filings.
10 May 2001: Subscribe to IAS and IASB email news alerts
If you would like to be notified about important IAS and IASB news (short email perhaps once or twice a month) please Click Here to Subscribe.
9 May 2001: IASB plans its first "Convergence Meeting"
IASB will meet with the chairs of eight national accounting standards boards on 24 May to discuss a common work programme for standard setting. The goal: a single set of high
quality accounting standards supported by national bodies around the world. IASB Press Release (25k PDF).
9 May 2001: Progress by IAS 39 Implementation Guidance Committee (IGC)
At its meeting on 24-25 April, the IGC approved most of the Batch 5 Q&A in final form. They also began work on Batch 6, soon to be exposed for public comment.
7 May 2001: Vienna Stock Exchange expands use of IAS
Starting in April, the Vienna Stock Exchange has required all domestic and foreign companies listed on the A-Market and the Austrian Growth Market to submit consolidated financial statements under either IAS or US GAAP. Other listed companies may use IAS or US GAAP, as well as Austrian GAAP.
4 May 2001: April edition of IASPlus newsletter is postedThe April 2001 IASPlus Newsletter may be downloaded (206k pdf). This version includes a quarterly summary of IASB news plus Asia-Pacific country updates.
4 May 2001: Former FASB chairman urges generalised IASB standards
Former FASB Chairman Dennis R. Beresford, writing in Accountancy Age, is concerned about the trend, particularly in the US, to have a "detailed accounting rule for everything, no matter how narrow or obscure the issue.... Accountants should encourage the new IASB to emphasise a principles-based approach. Further, as part of the commitment to convergence, it is time for the FASB and SEC to change their behaviour and become more like the rest of the world."
3 May 2001: Conflict of IAS and European Accounting Directives
In February the European Commission proposed that listed companies be required to apply IAS in their consolidated accounts from the financial year 2005 onwards. The Federation des Experts Comptables Europeens (FEE), which represents the accounting profession in Europe, points out that compliance with the existing EC Accounting Directives would continue to be required. FEE is concerned that there are incompatibilities between the Directives and IAS and sees an "urgent need for modernisation of the Directives". FEE has published a Discussion Paper on the Modernisation of the Directives (PDF, 114 kb). The paper discusses both the strategic and technical issues that are at stake and gives the advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches for modernisation. FEE's preferred solution would be to exempt listed companies that apply IAS from the EC Accounting Directives. Click for FEE Press Release.
3 May 2001: The World According to GAAP
Writing in the Financial Times, 1 May 2001, former US SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt focuses on The World According to GAAP:
Investors, public companies, accounting firms, stock markets and regulators around the world today face one of the great challenges for the global financial system's future: how to fashion an enduring system of comparable, uniform and high-quality financial reporting that is accepted just as much in Europe as it is in the US, and in developed countries as in emerging ones. It is a challenge born less out of crisis and more out of evolutionary progress....
As regulators around the world continue the process of developing a set of international accounting standards, some would like the US to embrace standards that would be of higher quality than those currently used in many countries but less rigorous than US GAAP. That would be a mistake.
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3 May 2001: Concern that US goodwill proposal may impede international harmonisation
In February, FASB issued a revised exposure draft on business combinations in which it proposed a model that calls for use of the purchase method for all business combinations, with goodwill not amortised but, rather, tested for impairment. FASB has just released an analysis of the comments on the exposure draft. While many respondents agreed with the basic proposal that goodwill is a non-wasting asset, most respondents disagreed with the details of the goodwill-impairment model. A sizeable group of respondents, primarily auditors and accounting academicians, disagreed with the basic model. A principal concern expressed by this group is that "an impairment-only accounting method for goodwill moves U.S. GAAP further from international harmonization". Business Combinations is one of the IASC projects handed over to the new IASB.
2 May 2001: Agenda for IASB's May meeting is announced
IASB will meet in London 22-25 May. On the agenda:
- Business Combinations - preliminary discussions
- Extractive Industries - presentation and discussion
- IAS 39 Implementation Guidance - discussion
- Improvements Project - preliminary discussion
- Interpretations - discussion
- Preface to the Standards - preliminary discussion
- Reporting on the Internet - presentation and discussion
- Style of new Standards - discussion
- Technical Agenda - further discussion of administrative items
On 24 May IASB will meet, in a public session, with the chairs of those national accounting standards-setting bodies that have a formal liaison relationship with IASB. They are Australia/New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, UK, and US. The meeting will focus on coordinating agendas and setting out convergence goals. |
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