The Eminent Persons Group is chaired by Jean-Claude Trichet, former President of the European Central Bank. Additional members are Sheila Bair, former Chair of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Nandan Nilekani, Chair and co-founder of Infosys, Guillermo Ortiz, former Governor of Banco de Mexico and former Chair of the Bank of International Settlements, and Min Zhu, former Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. The group has held its first meeting and will have regular engagement with the Trustees.

The Trustees now have four groups they work with in the context of their sustainability initiative:

• The Trustees’ Steering Committee provides strategic direction and project oversight and makes recommendations on key decisions for endorsement by all Trustees.
• The Eminent Persons Group provides strategic advice and counsel to the Trustees.
• The Technical Readiness Working Group is working on providing the ISSB with a ‘running start’.
• The Multilateral Working Group does preparatory work for a building-blocks approach and facilitates interaction with other international/jurisdictional initiatives.

Review the press release on the IASB's website.

In the final communiqué, the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors emphasize the need to green the global financial system so that financial decisions take climate considerations into account as this would help mobilize the trillions of dollars of private sector finance needed, and reinforce government policy to meet their net zero commitments. The communiqué notes:

We support moving towards mandatory climate-related financial disclosures that provide consistent and decision-useful information for market participants and that are based on the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework, in line with domestic regulatory frameworks. Investors need high quality, comparable and reliable information on climate risks. We therefore agree on the need for a baseline global reporting standard for sustainability, which jurisdictions can further supplement. We welcome the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation’s programme of work to develop this baseline standard under robust governance and public oversight, built from the TCFD framework and the work of sustainability standard-setters, involving them and a wider range of stakeholders closely to foster global best practice and accelerate convergence. We encourage further consultation on a final proposal leading to the establishment of an International Sustainability Standards Board ahead of COP26.

Review the full communiqué on the UK government website. In a press release on the IASB website, the Trustees appreciate the support in the G7 communiqué.

On May 27, 2021, the IASB published the ED in an effort to update the 2010 IFRS Practice Statement 1, Man­age­ment Com­men­tary. The one-hour webinar will be hosted by IASB Board member Nick Anderson and technical staff and include a ques­tion-and-an­swer session. In addition, the webinar will be presented in two sessions to ac­com­mo­date for different time zones.

For more in­for­ma­tion, see the press release on the IASB’s website.

Next, he commented on the progress done to IFRS Standards to reduce vulnerabilities. Specifically, he mentioned the improvements made by IFRS 9, IFRS 15, and IFRS 17 Standards, the updated conceptual framework, the primary financial statements project, and the new version of the management commentary practice statement.

Further, Mr. Hoogervorst noted the progress in the use of IFRS Standards globally and that there are currently more than 140 jurisdictions that have adopted IFRS Standards.

In closing, Mr. Hoogervorst thanked the Trustees, the IASB Board (past and present), IASB Vice-Chair Sue Lloyd, the technical and operational staff as well as the accounting community for all the contributions to the standard setting process.

In the video recording, upcoming IASB Chair Andreas Barckow provided a brief introduction and thanked Mr. Hoogervorst for all his accomplishments during the past 10 years.

Review the transcript and video of his speech on the IASB’s website.

This clas­si­fi­ca­tion overlay would:

• apply to financial assets that are related to insurance contract li­a­bil­i­ties and to which IFRS 9 has not been applied in the com­par­a­tive period(s);
• allow an entity to classify those financial assets in the com­par­a­tive period(s) in a way that aligns with how the entity expects those assets would be clas­si­fied on initial ap­pli­ca­tion of IFRS 9;
• apply for com­par­a­tive periods that have been restated for IFRS 17 (that is, from the tran­si­tion date to the date of initial ap­pli­ca­tion of IFRS 17); and
• apply on an in­stru­ment-by-in­stru­ment basis.

In the dis­cus­sion, all Board members who spoke supported the amendment. When asked to vote, 13 Board members stated that they are satisfied that the Board has complied with the ap­plic­a­ble due process steps and should begin the balloting process to publish an Exposure Draft; 12 Board members agreed with setting a 60-day comment period for the Exposure Draft; and no Board member intends to dissent from the proposals in the Exposure Draft.

The staff expects to publish the Exposure Draft by the end of July and aims at pub­lish­ing a final amendment at the end of the year.

For a detailed summary of this session, please see Deloitte Global's observer notes.

The TRWG is chaired by the IFRS Foun­da­tion and includes par­tic­i­pants from the Climate Dis­clo­sure Standard Board, Financial Stability Board's Task Force on Cli­mate-re­lated Financial Dis­clo­sures, IASB, Value Reporting Foun­da­tion, and World Economic Forum. The IOSCO and IPSASB are observers of meetings related to review of technical ob­ser­va­tions and proposals. In addition, the TRWG works with the Global Reporting Ini­tia­tive and CDP on technical matters.

The TRWG will hold three types of meetings: strategic, op­er­a­tional and technical, and working level. The meeting summaries of its May 5, 2021, May 17, 2021, and June 9, 2021 strategic meetings are now available.

For more in­for­ma­tion, see the TRWG page on the IASB’s website.

The VRF supports business and investor decision-making with three key resources:

• Integrated Thinking Principles,
• Integrated Reporting Framework, and
• SASB Standards.

These tools are intended to enable organizations to move from buy-in to action. By more closely aligning the Integrated Reporting Framework and the SASB Standards, the VRF will make it easier for businesses to communicate their long-term strategy and provide a more comprehensive view of business performance to investors and other providers of capital.

The VRF is also committed to the delivery of a more coherent corporate reporting system by working closely with the IFRS Foundation and other leading framework providers and standard-setters around the world.

Review the press release and the new VRF website for more information and a list of statements from business leaders.

As part of the launch, two publications have been published on the TNFD website:

• NATURE IN SCOPE: A summary of the proposed scope, governance, work plan, communication and resourcing plan for the TNFD
• Proposed Technical Scope Recommendations for the TNFD

Review the press release on the TNFD website announcing the launch as well as a letter by the two newly appointed Co-Chairs.

The workshop was hosted by EAA President Thorsten Sellhorn, EFRAG Sec­re­tariat Vincent Papa, and Peter Kajueter and included dis­cus­sions on the ob­jec­tives-based approach, selecting and pre­sent­ing in­for­ma­tion, and reporting on sus­tain­abil­ity matters.

The recording of the pre­sen­ta­tion as well as the slide deck are now available on the IASB website.

Listen to the recording of the presentations and access the slide decks on the IASB website.