Here are the key findings:

• The overall number of comment letters issued by the SEC has decreased since 2010
• The percentage of comment letters referencing a non-GAAP metric increased through 2017, but has been trending downward in the first 6 months of 2018
• The number and percentage of non-GAAP comment letters declined in 2018, while remaining above the 2015 level
• The ratio of non-GAAP letters that focus on tailored accounting increased from 6.5% in the last 6 months of 2016 to 12.3% in the first 6 months of 2018, while the total number of comment letters in the same periods decreased from 2,876 to 1,475

Review the full article on Audit Analytics' website.

The report is based on data collected from more than 200 executives working on blockchain initiatives at banks, technology vendors, dedicated blockchain companies, exchanges, and consultancy firms, among others.

In the report, 42% of firms identified scalability, which refers to a network's ability to process a high volume of transactions at high speeds, as a "major issue."

Review the article on Forbes' website and the report on Greenwich Associates' website.

“Given the significant growth and interest in the cannabis industry, it is imperative that investors be provided with transparent information about issuers’ financial performance and risks related to their operations,” said Louis Morisset, CSA Chair and President and CEO of the Autorité des marchés financiers. “Our review shows that the quality of disclosure in this area needs to be enhanced, and we encourage cannabis issuers to use this publication as a guide to make improvements.”

The CSA will continue to monitor and assess disclosure practices in the cannabis industry in its continuous disclosure and prospectus review programs.

Review the press release on the CSA's website and the Staff Notice on the CSA members’ website.

The purpose of the TRG is to seek feedback on potential issues related to im­ple­men­ta­tion of IFRS 17, Insurance Contracts. Specifically, the TRG discussed the following:

• 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 cash flows
• Premium waivers
• Group insurance policies
• Industry pools managed by an association
• Annual cohorts for contracts that share in the return of a specified pool of underlying items

A summary on the meeting and audio record­ings of each session are available on the TRG meeting page on the Boards’ website.

In addition, see the meeting summary and listen to the podcast on the Board's website.

A Q&A followed Michael’s presentation where he and Craig answered questions from Members of Parliament, offering insights on a broad range of topics—everything from the challenges to Canada’s productivity, attracting top talent, innovation, and competitiveness and business attractiveness.

The consultations are held each year by the bi-partisan Finance Committee in order to develop recommendations to the Finance Minister regarding the following year’s budget. Deloitte was one of the organizations invited to present in person during the Toronto stop of the committee’s cross-country consultations.

Review a recording and full transcript on the House of Commons Canada's website.

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.