For fur­ther de­tails, re­fer to the In Brief doc­u­ment on the AcSB’s web­site.

Mr Hoogervorst began with an overview of the primary financial statements (PFS) project and provided comments related to subtotals (definition of operating profits and profit before financing and tax), labeling non-GAAP measurement as ‘management performance measures’, improvements to disaggregation, the disclosure of ‘unusual’ items of income or expenses, and the impact the PFS proposals will have to the quality and usefulness of the income statement.

Next, Mr Hoogervorst commented on the importance of management commentary (a topic he also covered in similar speech at the Climate-Related Financial Reporting Conference in April 2019) to provide broader financial information, such as the impact of intangibles. He mentioned the need to update the Management Commentary Practice Statement to accommodate new advances made in the environmental, sustainability and governance reporting space.

For more information, see the transcript of his speech on the IASB’s website.

Re­view the announcement on the IASB’s web­site.

In his more general remarks on the global economy, Mr Liikanen noted that the economic growth cycle is now maturing, with various factors that may impede its longevity. In fact, he noted, globalization itself faces some challenges around the world.

Mr Liikanen then turned to the academic debate on whether digitalization, the process of leveraging technology and digitization to improve business performance can take up the slack in productivity. He described two schools of thought that have emerged and concluded that technology is an important enabler, but it needs to work itself through and the real benefits will only come once the procedures can be fully implemented.

Turning then to financial reporting, Mr Liikanen noted that investors seek diversification and investment opportunities. The digitization of financial information can help them to achieve these goals if it facilitates cross-border transactions and supports transparent, accountable and efficient financial markets in a digital world.

At this point, Mr Liikanen pointed to the IFRS Taxonomy and its increasing adoption around the world - most recently in Europe. He promised that the IFRS Foundation will continue to explore how technological developments affect the way financial information is consumed and what this means for the Foundation's Taxonomy strategy, as well as how technology-related innovations affect the standard-setting process.

Concluding, Mr Liikanen noted that the IFRS Foundation is about to embark on its own digital transformation. He pointed at a long-term plan for the IFRS Foundation to completely overhaul its technology systems that was signed off at the last meeting of the Trustees (the report from the meeting offers little detail but notes that plan will be discussed again at the next meeting of the Trustees, which will take place on June 25-27, 2019 in Munich).

Please click to access the full text of Mr Liikanen's speech on the IASB website.

The new guidelines on reporting climate-related information integrate the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) of the Financial Stability Board (FSB). 

In short, the new guidelines:

• accompany and are consistent with the EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive published in November 2014;
• supplement the general guidelines on non-financial reporting published in July 2017, which are still applicable;
• are based on proposals from Technical Expert Group (TEG) on Sustainable Finance published in January 2019;
• integrate the recommendations of the TCFD published in June 2017; and
• are not legally binding.

The new guidelines can be downloaded from the EC website, which also offers a press release, a short summary of the guidelines, and frequently asked questions.

In addition, the Commission welcomes three important expert reports published by the TEG on sustainable finance (all links to the EC website):

• A taxonomy for environmentally-sustainable economic activities that provides practical guidance for policy makers, industry and investors on how best to support and invest in economic activities that contribute to achieving a climate neutral economy.
• A report on an EU Green Bond Standard recommending clear and comparable criteria for issuing green bonds.
• A report on EU climate benchmarks and benchmarks' ESG disclosures setting out the methodology and minimum technical requirements for indices that will enable investors to orient the choice of investors who wish to adopt a climate-conscious investment strategy, and address the risk of greenwashing. 

The concept release seeks public comment on “several exemptions from registration under the Securities Act of 1933 that facilitate capital raising.” As a result of significant changes over the years to the overall framework for exempt offerings, the SEC is asking for feedback on “possible ways to simplify, harmonize, and improve [that] framework to promote capital formation and expand investment opportunities while maintaining appropriate investor protections.”

Comments on the concept release should be submitted no later than 90 days after the document’s publication in the Federal Register. For more information, see the press release and concept release on the SEC’s Web site.

The final rule amends the auditor independence rules by refocusing “the analysis that must be conducted to determine whether an auditor is independent when the auditor has a lending relationship with certain shareholders of an audit client at any time during an audit or professional engagement period.”

The final rule is effective 90 days after its publication in the Federal Register. For more information, see the press release and final rule on the SEC’s Web site.

Deloitte Global supports the IASB’s response in proposing amendments to both IFRS 9 and IAS 39 that deal with the immediate need of addressing the effect of the uncertainty arising from changes in benchmark interest rates on the “highly probable” requirement for cash flow hedges and the designated risk for cash flow and fair value hedges and suggest the IASB work on finalizing these amendments and begin the work on its second phase of amendments concurrently.

In addition, Deloitte Global believes there is a lack of clarity in (1) the application to retrospective hedge effectiveness, (2) the measurement of hedge ineffectiveness, and (3) whether the amounts deferred in the cash flow hedge reserve should be reclassified to profit or loss when the entity ceases applying the amendment.

Please download the full comment letter here.

The AcSB supports the IASB’s decision to provide relief to the forward-looking aspect of the hedged accounting requirements in the first phase of this project.

However, the AcSB thinks some of the project issues in Phase 2, such as the retrospective assessment and the recycling of the accumulated other comprehensive income balance, are closely related to the issues in the first phase and should be addressed as soon as possible.

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

The IASB proposes to amend IFRS 3 to replace the reference to The Framework for

the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements with the revised Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting in a way that avoid conflicts with other IFRS® Standards

For fur­ther de­tails, re­fer to the Ex­po­sure Draft on the AcSB’s web­site.