Mr. Hooger­vorst began with an overview of the PFS project and provided comments related to new subtotals, such as operating profit and profit before financing and tax. He also discussed the need for greater transparency and discipline in the use of non-GAAP measures.

Next, Mr. Hooger­vorst commented on man­age­ment com­men­tary to provide broader financial in­for­ma­tion, such as the impact of in­tan­gi­ble assets. In addition, the project will revise the Practice Statement to accommodate the increase in interest in sustainability reporting.

Lastly, he agreed with the Eumedion’s green paper, Towards a global standard-setter for non-financial reporting, which called for the need for consolidation in non-financial reporting.

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

The review identified that there are a number of areas where disclosure around IFRS 16 could be improved. Notwithstanding that half-yearly disclosures are less extensive than those of a full year, the FRC is of the opinion that “some companies did not sufficiently explain the impact of adopting IFRS 16”. The FRC expects that disclosures in full year reports will be more comprehensive.

Review the press release and IFRS 16 thematic review on the FRC's website.

Review the press release and access the slides and audio recordings on the IASB’s website.

The article discusses:

• What is cybersecurity?
• Cybersecurity governance
• Protection from malicious software and external attack
• Hardware maintenance plans
• People and documentation
• Policies and procedures
• System use policy
• Email use policy
• Internet use policy
• Remote access policy
• Insurance

Review the full article on the IFAC's website.

In his speech, he discusses:

• IESBA: An independent and authoritative standard setter
• Restructuring and revision: The new code of 2018
• The ecode: A valuable tool for users
• Working for the future
• Recognizing the synergy of ethics and ISAs
• Technological revolution
• From global ethical practice to ethical leadership

Review the full speech on the IESBA's website.

The report highlights the gap between current reporting and investor expectations as economies increasingly transition towards low carbon and climate resilient futures and calls on companies to bridge this gap. It provides practical guidance about where companies can improve their reporting. The report also outlines what investors want to understand, questions companies should ask themselves, recommended disclosures, and a range of examples of the developing practice of climate-related reporting.

Review the report Climate-related corporate reporting – Where to next? from the FRC's website.

Some of Canada’s emerging and fast-growing sectors have been busy managing new realities as they continue to develop. Canada’s technology sector is maturing, with acqui-hires and other investment coming into the country’s tech hubs. Canada’s tech sector has become a particularly attractive sector for U.S. buyers—including large buyers—which is influencing the Canadian tech ecosystem in important ways, from how deals are getting done to domestic VC funding.

Review the press release and report on the Torys website.

The glacial progress indicates that our current approaches are not working. In Canada, less than one-fifth of all leadership roles are held by women. And women’s representation on company boards is also still low, changing at 1–2 per cent every year—not fast enough to reach long-term targets. Other under-represented groups’ experiences can be even worse, from consistently lower wages for immigrant workers to a dismal employment rate for people with disabilities.

Review the full article on the Conference Board of Canada's website.

The AASB recently published published the bulletin Climate-related and other emerging risks disclosures: assessing financial statement materiality using AASB Practice Statement 2, with AASB Practice Statement 2 being essentially the same as the IASB Practice Statement on Materiality. The paper now released provides an outline of the guidance in the practice statement and motivation behind the issuance of the bulletin on climate‐related risk disclosures, key takeaways and recommendations, and the AASB's suggestions on the type of evidence that would be useful for standard-setters.

Climate-related Risk and Financial Statements: Implications for Regulators, Preparers, Auditors and Users was published in the Australian Accounting Review and can be accessed free of charge in the Wiley Online Library.

For this agenda item, background notes have been prepared by the UNCTAD secretariat to facilitate deliberations. The paper can be downloaded from the UNCTAD website:

• Practical implementation, including measurement, of core indicators for entity reporting on the contribution towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals: Review of case studies

Since the thirty-fifth session of ISAR, UNCTAD has completed and published the Guidance on Core Indicators for Entity Reporting on Contribution towards Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The core indicators contained in the current version of the Guidance are follows:

A review of the case studies provided evidence that environmental and social indicators were more difficult to report on than economic and institutional indicators.

General information on the session including a provisional agenda for the meeting is available here.

Further publication of interest in the context of the meeting are available on the UNCTAD website:

• International Accounting and Reporting Issues: 2018 Review
• Guidance on core indicators for entity reporting on contribution towards implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals