View the short overview (17 minutes) on YouTube.

Here are a few of the issues that they highlighted in the 2018 edition:

• Shareholder proposals and proxy access, including trends in shareholder proposals on ESG and other topics; and the tepid adoption of proxy access policies in Canada
• Gender diversity and #MeToo, including data and trends in women’s representation on boards and executive positions; pending diversity-related amendments to the federal corporate statute; potential implications for companies in the #MeToo movement; and potential changes in securities law disclosure requirements
• Virtual shareholder meetings, including the advantages and disadvantages of virtual or virtual-hybrid meetings; the positions taken by proxy advisory firms; and issues to consider in deciding whether to go virtual

Review the full report on Davies' website.

The topics discussed at this meeting include:

• Conversions under IFRS 17
• Risk adjustment for worker’s compensation boards
• Insurance risk consequent to an incurred claim
• Determining discount rates using a top-down approach
• Commissions and reinstatement premiums in reinsurance contracts issued
• Premium experience adjustments related to current or past service
• Cash flows that are outside the contract boundary at initial recognition
• Recovery of insurance acquisition costs
• Premium waivers
• Group insurance policies
• Industry pools managed by association
• Annual cohorts for contracts that share in the return of a specific pool of underlying assets
• Reporting on other questions submitted to the IASB Transition Resource Group for IFRS 17

Review the summary on the AcSB's website.

The paper is very much a discussion paper canvassing the background issues, noting recent developments and asking a number of discussion questions. The paper does not advance a government view.

The key areas addressed by the paper include:

• User created value
• Value of intangibles, including marketing intangibles
• Profit attribution rules
• Existing nexus rules
• Digital business or beyond?
• Interim options

Submissions on the discussion paper are due by November 30, 2018.

Review our summary and the discussion paper on the Australian government's website.

In his speech, Mr. Prada looked back over the long success story of IFRS Standards^® that he had been closely involved with over twenty years. As he explained, the birth of the IFRS movement began, as many other movements do, with a crisis. In the late nineties, the Asian financial crisis hit a deeply fragmented accounting world, and in May 2000 IOSCO endorsed international financial reporting standards — in a meeting chaired by Michel Prada at that time. And while the SEC realized that it needed to protect investors that were increasingly investing abroad, the Enron scandal shook belief in US GAAP, and the international community came to the conclusion that "international accounting standards could not be drafted in Connecticut".

Mr. Prada explained how the European Union decided to adopt IFRS Standards from 2005 and how the EU, Hong Kong, South Africa, and others led the way in global adoption. Today, Mr. Prada stated, nine out of ten jurisdictions apply IFRS Standards, and many large jurisdictions that have not joined fully (yet) have either standards that are close to IFRS Standards or permit IFRS Standards — sometimes for certain groups only (Mr. Prada detailed the situation in China, India, Japan, and the US). He also touched upon the topic of consistent application. While there was still much to do and while, as Mr. Prada commented on one of the first adopters of IFRS Standards, "in Europe not everything is always easy" these days, he concluded that IFRS Standards have come of age.

Looking to the future of IFRS Standards, Mr. Prada talked about the relevance of accounting in an age of digital disruption and how IFRS Standards need to adapt and evolve. He also discussed broader corporate reporting and the need to cooperate globally to provide investors with a tool to assess companies performance across many fields. In this world, he maintained, IFRS Standards need looking after and sometimes even protection, but he did not doubt their relevance.

Taking leave of the standard-setters community, he urged his audience to deepen their cooperation, to develop standards together and to solve problems together. He ended with two strong messages: "IFRS Standards are not merely about standards, but also about people," he said, and "IFRS remains a shining example of what can be achieved when people work together."

Mr. Prada's term as Chair of the Trustee's ended in December 2017 but he agreed to stay on until a successor could be found. He will hand over to the designated Chair of the Trustees, Mr. Erkki Liikanen, at the Trustees' meeting in Johannesburg later this month.

Review the press release on the IASB's website.

While the Task Force found some of the results of its disclosure review encouraging, it also recognized further work is needed for disclosures to contain more decision-useful climate-related information. The majority of companies reviewed disclosed information that is aligned with at least one of the recommended disclosures in their financial filings, annual reports, or sustainability reports.

The review results also indicate that climate-related financial disclosures are still in early stages. This is consistent with the Task Force’s view that implementation of its recommendations is a journey and companies are in different places in terms of their exposure to climate-related risks and opportunities and their reporting capabilities.

In the coming year, the TCFD plans to vigorously support further implementation efforts.

Review the report and a summary on the TCFD's website.

Key trends outlined in this year’s review include:

• The total percentage of board seats held by women increased to 15 per cent in 2018 from 11 per cent in 2015.
• When board seats became available and were filled, nearly three in 10 were filled by women.
• The number of issuers with at least one woman on their board increased to 66 per cent in 2018, from 49 per cent in 2015.
• 42 per cent of issuers had adopted a policy on identifying and nominating women directors in 2018, representing an almost three-fold increase since 2015.
• Issuers that adopted targets for the representation of women on their boards increased to 16 per cent in 2018 from 7 per cent in 2015.
• The number of issuers with at least one woman in executive officer positions increased to 66 per cent in 2018, from 60 per cent in 2015.

Review the press release on the CSA's website and the Staff Notice on the participating jurisdictions' website.

The TCFD surveyed disclosures of over 1,700 firms from diverse sectors with broad geographical representation.

Even though the TCFD found that the majority of the firms surveyed disclose information aligned with at least one of the TCFD recommended disclosures, many companies just describe climate-related risks and opportunities but don't disclose the financial impact of climate change on the company.

The report also notes that disclosures vary widely across industries and that more non-financial companies than financial companies reported their climate-related metrics and targets. In addition, disclosures are often made in sustainability reports or spread across financial filings, annual and sustainability reports.

Review the press release and the status report on the FSB's website.

Discussion points included:

• Revised and Restructured Code Rollout
• IFAC Initiatives Update
• Fees
• Strategy and Work Plan
• Technology
• Professional Skepticism
• IAASB-IESBA Coordination
• Non-assurance Services
• eCode
• Alignment of Part 4B with ISAE 3000
• Joint IAASB and IESBA Board Meeting

Review the highlights and the podcast on the IESBA's website.

Below is an analysis of all changes made to the work plan since our last analysis on July 20, 2018.

Standard-setting projects

• Primary financial statements — After deliberations at its September meeting, the IASB decided to move the project from the research agenda to the standard-setting agenda.

Main­te­nance projects

• Classification of liabilities as current or non-current (Amendments to IAS 1) — After deliberations at its September meeting, the IASB decided the next milestone would be an IFRS amendment. No expected date has been set.
• Definition of a business (Amendments to IFRS 3) — An IFRS amendment has been pushed to October 2018 (previously set to September 2018).
• Disclosure Initiative — Accounting policies — Newly added to the work plan. The Board discussed this topic at its September meeting. An exposure draft is noted in the work plan without an expected date.
• Updating a reference to the Conceptual Framework (Amendments to IFRS 3) — Newly added to the work plan; the Board will decide the project direction at its November 2018 meeting.

Research projects

• Extractive activities — Newly added to the work plan. The Board discussed this topic at its September meeting and plans to review research. No expected date is listed.
• IBOR reform and the effects of financial reporting — Newly added to work plan; the Board plans to decide the project direction in Q4 2018.
• Pension benefits that depend on asset returns — Newly added to the work plan; the Board plans to review research in H2 2019.
• Share-based payment — The project summary slipped from September 2018 and is now expected in October 2018.

Other projects

• IFRS Taxonomy update — 2018 general improvements — Newly added to the work plan; a proposed update is expected in Q4 2018.
• IFRS Taxonomy update — Common practice (IFRS 13) — The IASB published this update on 20 September 2018. The work plan now states that the Board will analyse feedback in Q1 2019.

The revised IASB work plan is available on the Board's website.