July 2022

IASB concludes agenda consultation by releasing a feedback statement

Jul 29, 2022

On July 29, 2022, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) set out its 2022–2026 priorities. The IASB had previously launched its third public consultation on March 30, 2021 to seek broad public input on the strategic direction and overall balance of its future work programme.

 

Background

In the request for views published in March 2021, the Board asked broad questions on the strategic direction and balance of the IASB’s activities; the criteria for assessing the priority of financial reporting issues that could be added to the IASB’s work plan; and financial reporting issues that could be added to the IASB’s work plan. The Board received 124 comment letters and 37 responses to its related online survey.

 

General messages

On the three major areas consulted on, the following general messages were received:

  • Strategic direction and balance of the IASB’s activities. Respondents generally supported the Board’s current strategic direction. They also indicated that the balance of the IASB’s activities is about right, however, there were calls for increasing the efforts on digital reporting and on understandability and accessibility of the standards. Therefore, the IASB will provide for a modest increase in these two areas.
  • Criteria for assessing the priority of financial reporting issues that could be added to the IASB’s work plan. Almost all respondents agreed with the criteria proposed by the Board. Many noted that the criteria were well-balanced and adequate. Some suggested that the IASB rank the criteria or split them into essential and secondary criteria. 
  • Financial reporting issues that could be added to the IASB’s work plan. Most respondents rated potential projects on climate-related risks, cryptocurrencies and related transactions, and intangible assets as high priority. Also high on the list were going concern, pollutant pricing mechanisms, and the statement of cash flows and related. At the end of the list were potential projects on borrowing costs, commodity transactions, employee benefits, expenses — inventory and cost of sales, foreign currencies, government grants, negative interest rates and separate financial statements, inflation, and interim financial statements.

The IASB was also very pleased about the responses received through the survey as they included responses of stakeholders that do not normally respond to consultations. Providing the possibility to reply by way of a survey will also be considered for future consultations as it encouraged a broader stakeholder base to respond.

 

IASB decisions

The comment period on the request for views ended in September 2021. The IASB considered the feedback received from November 2021 to April 2022 and decided:

  • to add to its work plan a maintenance and consistent application project on climate-related risks;
  • to add to the research pipeline projects on:
    1. intangible assets; and
    2. the statement of cash flows and related matters;
  • to create a reserve list of projects that could be added to the work plan only if additional capacity becomes available, which would include projects on:
    1. operating segments; and
    2. pollutant-pricing mechanisms; and
  • not to add to its work plan projects on:
    1. cryptocurrencies and related transactions; or
    2. going concern disclosures.

 

Other feedback

Respondents also commented on:

  • Collaboration with the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The IASB and the ISSB expect to collaborate to support complementary standard-setting and reporting. The IASB thinks that coordination and resources will be needed to support collaboration with the ISSB alongside the IASB’s existing activities. This would relate to and be reflected in new accounting standards and major amendments to the accounting standards, digital financial reporting, the understandability and accessibility of accounting standards, and stakeholder engagement.
  • Enhancing partnerships with national standard-setters. The IASB's partnership with national standard-setters already supports all of the IASB’s main activities. However, the IASB concluded that the resources of national standard-setters would not enable the IASB to increase the number of projects it could add to its work plan for 2022 to 2026. In the longer term, national standard-setters’ support, particularly during the research phase of a project, could allow for faster completion of projects, however, and thus provide capacity for more projects to be added to the IASB’s work plan as part of future agenda consultations.
  • Priority of matters identified in post-implementation reviews. Respondents suggested, in managing stakeholders’ expectations, it would be helpful if the IASB clearly set out the objectives of a post-implementation review and explained better
    what the outcome of a post-implementation review can be. The IASB has discussed with the Trustees’ Due Process Oversight Committee (DPOC) how to communicate more clearly the objective, process and possible outcomes of a post-implementation review.

 

Additional information

Review the following documents on the IASB's website:

IFRS 17 Matters for Non-insurance Entities

Jul 28, 2022

Did you know that IFRS 17, Insurance Contracts, can apply to insurance contracts issued by non-insurance entities? With the effective date of this standard fast approaching, non-insurance entities are encouraged to review their contracts to determine whether they are in scope of IFRS 17.

Review the press release and publications on the AcSB's website.

MB discusses the ongoing activities of the ISSB

Jul 01, 2022

The IFRS Foun­da­tion Mon­i­tor­ing Board (MB) has released a short report on the meeting with the IFRS Trustees and the lead­er­ship of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and International Sus­tain­abil­ity Standards Board (ISSB) in Montreal. Given current de­vel­op­ments, much of the meeting was devoted to the ongoing public con­sul­ta­tion by the ISSB on the draft standards.

The MB welcomed the strong momentum towards es­tab­lish­ing IFRS Sus­tain­abil­ity Dis­clo­sure standards and strongly en­cour­aged all stake­hold­ers to continue engaging with the ISSB and to respond to their con­sul­ta­tion. They noted:

We welcome that the ISSB is par­tic­u­larly in­ter­ested in obtaining feedback from a variety of stake­hold­ers to un­der­stand whether the proposals will provide useful in­for­ma­tion to investors and are capable of being applied and accepted globally, including by smaller companies and those in emerging markets.

The MB also en­cour­aged the ISSB to continue their outreach with preparers from different in­dus­tries and sizes.

As regards global adoption of the final standards, the MB noted that the outreach program that the ISSB has embarked on during the con­sul­ta­tion period was a positive step to putting into practice an effective building blocks approach to the in­ter­op­er­abil­ity of the ISSB global baseline. In that context, the report notes, the MB strongly supports the ISSB’s ongoing en­gage­ment with a wide variety of stake­hold­ers, including through the formation of the Ju­ris­dic­tional Working Group.

Please click to access the full report on the IOSCO website.

Short summary of the IFRS Foundation Conference 2022

Jul 01, 2022

The IFRS Foun­da­tion Con­fer­ence 2022 was held on June 23/24. 2022, split into one sus­tain­abil­ity day and one accounting day. The IFRS Foun­da­tion has now published a short summary of the con­fer­ence on its website.

Updated IASB and ISSB work plan — Analysis (July 2022)

Jul 25, 2022

On July 25, 2022, the International Accounting Standards Board (the Board) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) updated its work plan following its July 2022 meeting. Two new projects have been added to the work plan.

Below is an analysis of all changes made to the work plan since our last analysis on June 27, 2022.

Standard-setting projects

Maintenance projects

Research projects

Other projects

  • ISSB consultation on agenda priorities — An initial discussion of this project took place during the ISSB's July meeting; the next expected project step is a request for information to be published in Q4 2022
  • Third agenda consultation — no changes, the work plan still notes "July 2022" for the feedback statement to be published — this would mean later this week

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

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