Striking progress has been made, particularly in relation to the quality of the data. Reports were found to be more consistent: this was one of the lowest-rated areas in last year's review project, but became one of the strongest this year.

There are also signs of a focus on conciseness. The length of reports has reduced: just under half (49%) of reports reviewed contain 100 pages or fewer (compared with 20% last year) excluding the financial statements.

Review the press release and report on the ACCA's website.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued its hedging standard last August, making it effective for public companies in 2019 and private companies in 2020, but also allowing for early adoption. The standard refines and expands hedge accounting for both financial risks, such as interest rates, and commodity risks.

Review the full article on Accounting Today's website.

IAS 29 "Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies" defines and provides general guidance for assessing whether a particular jurisdiction's economy is hyperinflationary. But the IASB does not identify specific jurisdictions. The International Practices Task Force (IPTF) of the Centre for Audit Quality (CAQ) monitors the status of "highly inflationary" countries. The Task Force's criteria for identifying such countries are similar to those for identifying "hyperinflationary economies" under IAS 29.

The IPTF's discussion document for the November 21, 2017 meeting is now available and states the following view of the Task Force:

Countries with three-year cumulative inflation rates exceeding 100%:

• South Sudan
• Suriname
• Venezuela

Countries with projected three-year cumulative inflation rates exceeding 100%:

• Angola
• Libya
• Argentina

Countries where the three-year cumulative inflation rates had exceeded 100% in recent years:

• Sudan

Countries with recent three-year cumulative inflation rates exceeding 100% after a spike in inflation in a discrete period:

• Ukraine

Countries with projected three-year cumulative inflation rates between 70% and 100% or with a significant (25% or more) increase in inflation during the current period

• Democratic Republic of Kongo
• Egypt
• Yemen

Review the press release and full list, including exact numbers, detailed explanations of the calculation of the numbers, and observations of the Task Force on the CAQ's website.

This webcast is part of a series to support the implementation of IFRS 17.

Review the press release on the Board’s website. In addition, earlier webcasts and webinars on IFRS 17 are available through an archive.

Robert Uhl is US National Director of Accounting Standards. He is also the US leader on Deloitte’s Global IFRS Leadership Team and a member of the Financial Accounting Standard Board’s Emerging Issues Task Force.

The other reappointed member, Jongsoo Han, is a Member of the Korea Accounting Standards Board (KASB) and Chairman of the Korea Institute of CPAs’ Accounting Research Committee.

Review the press release on the International Accounting Standards Board's website.

This issue features:

• Spotlight — Timing and amount of revenue recognition
• IFRS 15 In Profile
• Project updates
• Information on investor materials and current events

Review the Investor Update newsletter on the Board’s website.

He will succeed current IFAC Chief Executive Officer, Fayez Choudhury, whose term expires at the end of the year.

Review the press release on the IFAC's website.

The topics discussed at this meeting include:

• Boundary of reinsurance contracts held
• Separation of insurance components of a single insurance contract
• Boundary of contracts with annual repricing mechanisms
• Insurance acquisition cash flows paid on an initially written contract
• Determining quantity of benefits for identifying coverage units
• Insurance acquisition cash flows when using fair value transition
• Reporting on other questions submitted to the IASB® Transition Resource Group for IFRS 17, Insurance Contracts

Review the summary on the AcSB's website.

In the first phase of the project, the European Commission asked EFRAG to collect quantitative data on the current holdings of equity instruments and their accounting treatment and investigate if entities expect that the new accounting requirements will affect their decisions in relation to investment in equity instruments. EFRAG reported its findings from this first phase in January 2018.

In the second phase of the project, the Commission asked EFRAG to provide advice on whether and how the requirements in IFRS 9 on accounting for holdings of equity instruments could be improved. As part of its due process, EFRAG has now published the discussion paper to gather constituents' views on recycling and impairment of equity instruments designated at fair value through other comprehensive income.

EFRAG has not included a preliminary view on the issues explored. Rather, the paper analyses the relevance of recycling in the context of a long-term investment business model and presents arguments on the conceptual relationship between recycling gains and losses on derecognition and impairment. The paper considers how the application problems identified with IAS 39's impairment model for available-for-sale equity instruments could be addressed. It illustrates an impairment model and a revaluation model but does not express a preliminary view as to which, if either, of these two models is preferable.

​Comments on the discussion paper are expected by May 25, 2018.

Review the discussion paper on the EFRAG's website.

The proposed update would specifically clarify the accounting for implementation costs related to a cloud computing arrangement that is a service contract. It also would provide more disclosures of the implementation costs for internal-use software and cloud computing arrangements.

Review the press release and the exposure draft on the FASBs website.