General remarks

Below is an analysis of all changes made to the work plan since our last analysis on June 26, 2017.

Stan­dard-set­ting projects

• No changes

Main­te­nance projects

• Narrow-scope amendments to IAS 19 and IFRIC 14 — Remeasurement on a plan amendment, curtailment or settlement / Availability of a refund of a surplus from a defined benefit plan [ED] — final amend­ments are now expected in the first half of 2018 (was: fourth quarter of 2017)
• A new project "Accounting policy changes (Amend­ments to IAS 8)" has been added to the work plan. This goes back to the Board's June 2017 dis­cus­sions when the Board ten­ta­tively decided to amend IAS 8 to lower the im­prac­ti­ca­bil­ity threshold regarding ret­ro­spec­tive ap­pli­ca­tion of voluntary changes in accounting policies that result from agenda decisions. An exposure draft is currently expected in the first half of 2018.
• Long-term Interests in Associates and Joint Ventures (Proposed Amendments to IAS 28) [ED] (split out from the annual im­prove­ment process 2015-2017) is now expected to see final amend­ments in October 2017 (was: September 2017)
• The two remaining issues of the annual im­prove­ment process 2015-2017 were set to see final amend­ments in July 2017. This has been changed to the fourth quarter of 2017.
• Prepayment Features with Negative Compensation (Proposed amendments to IFRS 9) [ED] — dis­cus­sions this week have clarified that final amend­ments are expected in October 2017

Research projects

• Discount Rates [Research] — a research report is now expected in the first half of 2018 (was: September 2017)
• Share-based payments, potential amendments to IFRS 2 [Completed] — a research report is now expected in the first half of 2018 (was: September 2017)

Other projects

• No changes

The above is a com­par­i­son of the IASB work plan at June 26, 2017 and at July 21, 2017. For access to the current IASB work plan at any time, please click here.

Ms. Shah, who will take office in October 2017, is currently Deputy Chief Ac­coun­tant of the Division of Cor­po­ra­tion Finance of the US Se­cu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion (SEC). In that capacity she has supported the SEC staff’s dis­cus­sions on IFRSs within the International Or­ga­ni­za­tion of Se­cu­ri­ties Com­mis­sion’s (IOSCO) accounting technical committee.

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

The webinar was tailored to investors and covered the following questions:

• Why IFRS 17 was developed?
• How does IFRS 17 work?
• What are the benefits of IFRS 17?

There is also a section with answers to questions submitted by investors during the webinar.

Listen to the webinar through the press release on the IASB website.

The illustrative tagging shows how selected information from the Illustrative Examples accompanying IFRS 17 could be tagged using the IFRS Taxonomy Update that was proposed together with the issuance of IFRS 17 on May 18, 2017 and is currently expected to be published in the fourth quarter of 2017.

The illustrative tagging is available through the IASB's supporting material section of the Taxonomy Update project page.

This questionnaire is open from July 18, 2017 through September 20, 2017. A copy of the report can be accessed here.

The move comes amid the rollout of country-by-country reporting requirements by the Internal Revenue Service that the U.S. is carrying out in conjunction with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s plan for combating base erosion and profit shifting, known as OECD BEPS.

Review the article, the House Democrats' letter to the FASB and the SEC's Investor Advisory Committee's letter to the FASB.

The event was organized by the International Accounting Standards Board, in conjunction with EFRAG, the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS), and the Association Belge des Analystes Financiers (ABAF/BVFA).

It introduced the main elements of the Discussion Paper, the preliminary positions held, focused on the information needs of investors, and sought input on the following issues included in the Discussion Paper: (i) Can principles make communication more effective? (ii) What do investors think are useful examples of disclosures in the financial statements? (iii) Alternative (non-IFRS) performance measures in the financial statements: misleading or useful? (iv) Should unusual or infrequently occurring items be separately reported and if so how? and (v) How important is the application of materiality when deciding what and how to disclose information?

Re­view the Summary Report on the IASB’s website.

The analysis in the report entitled, Financial stability im­pli­ca­tions of IFRS 9, focuses on two aspects: (i) IFRS 9 and fair value accounting for the mea­sure­ment of financial assets; (ii) the new expected credit loss paradigm

The report notes that the ESRB concludes that IFRS 9 rep­re­sents a major im­prove­ment in com­par­i­son with IAS 39 and is expected to bring sub­stan­tial benefits from a financial stability per­spec­tive. Together with the greater clarity and certainty as­so­ci­ated with its prin­ci­ples-based approach to the clas­si­fi­ca­tion and mea­sure­ment of financial in­stru­ments, the earlier and fuller recog­ni­tion of im­pair­ment losses under the new expected credit losses model is expected to have positive effects on financial stability.

The ESRB report is ac­com­pa­nied by an oc­ca­sional paper entitled, Assessing the cyclical im­pli­ca­tions of IFRS 9 – a recursive model. This paper describes a model for assessing different ap­proaches to the accounting of credit im­pair­ment losses. In par­tic­u­lar, it compares the impact of a crisis on banks assuming four such different ap­proaches, including the current approach in IAS 39 (incurred losses) and the solutions adopted under IFRS 9 and in the United States re­spec­tively.

For further information, refer to the press release on the ESRB’s website.

The proposed amendments would prohibit deducting from the cost of an item of property, plant and equipment any proceeds from selling items produced before the asset is available for use. Instead, an entity would recognize the proceeds from selling such items, and the related production costs, in profit or loss.

Re­view the Ex­po­sure Draft on the AcSB's web­site.

The exercise, which follows up on the first impact as­sess­ment published in November 2016, has confirmed the EBA's initial ob­ser­va­tions on the stage of prepa­ra­tion for the im­ple­men­ta­tion of IFRS 9 and the estimated impact of IFRS 9 on reg­u­la­tory own funds.

On the qual­i­ta­tive side, the report high­lights that banks have made further progress on the im­ple­men­ta­tion of IFRS 9 since the previous exercise, but smaller banks are still lagging behind in their prepa­ra­tion compared with larger banks. On the quan­ti­ta­tive side, the responses received show that the estimated impact of IFRS 9 is mainly driven by IFRS 9 im­pair­ment re­quire­ments. The estimated increase of pro­vi­sions is on average 13% compared to the current levels of pro­vi­sions under IAS 39.

The full report can be accessed on the EBA website.