News

IFRS - FSB (Financial Stability Board) Image

TCFD publishes final recommendations on climate-related financial disclosures

Jun 29, 2017

The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) set up by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to develop voluntary, consistent climate related financial risk disclosures for use by companies in providing information to lenders, insurers, investors and other stakeholders has published its final recommendations for effective disclosure of climate-related financial risks.

The final report follows on a con­sul­ta­tion document published in December 2016. The con­sul­ta­tion document saw 320 unique responses from re­spon­dents in 30 countries, including 15 of the G20 ju­ris­dic­tions. The four widely adoptable rec­om­men­da­tions on cli­mate-re­lated financial dis­clo­sures that are ap­plic­a­ble to or­gan­i­za­tions across sectors and ju­ris­dic­tions were widely supported and remain unchanged:

  • Gov­er­nance: Dis­clo­sure of the organization’s gov­er­nance around cli­mate-re­lated risks and op­por­tu­ni­ties
  • Strategy: Dis­clo­sure of the actual and potential impacts of cli­mate-re­lated risks and op­por­tu­ni­ties on the organization’s busi­nesses, strategy, and financial planning
  • Risk man­age­ment: Dis­clo­sure of how the organization iden­ti­fies, assesses, and manages cli­mate-re­lated risks
  • Metrics and targets: Dis­clo­sure of the metrics and targets used to assess and manage relevant cli­mate-re­lated risks and op­por­tu­ni­tiesThe following ad­di­tional in­for­ma­tion is available on the FSB website:
  • Key features of the rec­om­men­da­tions are that they are adoptable by all or­gan­i­za­tions, should be included in main­stream financial filings, are designed to solicit de­ci­sion-use­ful, for­ward-look­ing in­for­ma­tion on financial impacts, and have a strong focus on risks and op­por­tu­ni­ties related to the tran­si­tion to a lower-car­bon economy. The TCFD also rec­om­mends the dis­clo­sure of potential impacts of cli­mate-re­lated risks and op­por­tu­ni­ties under different potential scenarios, including a 2° Celsius scenario.
Securities - OSC Image

OSC Publishes 2017-2018 Statement of Priorities

Jun 29, 2017

On June 29, 2017, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) published its 2017-2018 Statement of Priorities, which sets out the 15 priority areas where the OSC intends to focus its resources and actions over the coming fiscal year, as well as the expected outcomes.

The OSC received 21 comment letters on its draft 2017-2018 Statement of Priorities. The feedback was broadly supportive of reducing regulatory burden, working with fintech businesses to foster innovation in capital markets, and implementing targeted approaches to address seniors’ issues.

The final 2017-2018 Statement of Priorities includes an additional priority related to the work required to transfer regulatory oversight of syndicated mortgages to the OSC.

Re­view the press re­lease and the 2017-2018 Statement of Priorities on the OSC's web­site.

Securities - CSA Image

CSA propose a new prospectus exemption for the resale of securities of a foreign issuer

Jun 29, 2017

On June 29, 2017, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published for comment proposed amendments to National Instrument 45-102 Resale of Securities (NI 45-102) that would introduce a new prospectus exemption for the resale of securities of a foreign issuer.

If adopted, the proposed exemption would allow Canadian investors to resell, outside of Canada, securities of a foreign issuer acquired under a prospectus exemption where the issuer is not a reporting issuer in any jurisdiction of Canada. The proposed amendments suggest a different approach for determining minimal connection to Canada by introducing a definition of foreign issuer to replace the current 10 per cent Canadian ownership test.

Comments on the proposed amendments should be submitted in writing by September 27, 2017.  Re­view the press re­lease and related documents on the AMF’s web­site.

Concurrently on June 29, 2017, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) published for a 90-day comment period revised OSC Rule 72-503 Distributions Outside Canada and proposed Companion Policy 72-503 Distributions Outside Canada. Under these proposals, resale provisions of securities of a foreign issuer would instead be covered by the CSA’s foreign issuer resale exemption above.

IFRS - IASB Image

IASB issues "Investor Update" newsletter

Jun 28, 2017

The IASB has issued the thirteenth edition of its newsletter 'Investor Update', which provides investors with quick access to information about current accounting and financial reporting topics.

This issue features:

  • An overview of the Dis­cus­sion Paper on prin­ci­ples of dis­clo­sure
  • An interview with Geoff Robinson, Executive Director, UBS In­vest­ment Bank
  • A call for views on the post-im­ple­men­ta­tion review of IFRS 13 and the Prin­ci­ples of Dis­clo­sure dis­cus­sion paper
  • In­for­ma­tion on investor materials and current events.

The Investor Update newslet­ter is available on the IASB’s website.

Securities - BCSC Image

BCSC releases 2017 Compliance Report Card

Jun 28, 2017

On June 28, 2017, the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) released its 2017 Compliance Report Card. The annual report card summarizes the findings from the BCSC's compliance reviews of B.C.-based portfolio managers, investment fund managers, and exempt market dealers over the last fiscal year.

At March 31, 2017, there were 116 firms directly registered with the BCSC. In its reviews, the BCSC found the following positive practices among firms with good cultures of compliance: reviewing guidance from CSA Staff Notices to take timely proactive corrective actions; consulting with BCSC relationship managers to resolves issues before they become compliance deficiencies in a compliance exam; providing meaningful annual chief compliance officer (CCO) reports to their firm's board; and considering how changes to business, staff, or revenue may affect compliance programs, and updating policies and procedures manuals appropriately

The report also noted that in the 26 compliance reviews conducted last year, 171 total compliance deficiencies were found, averaging 6.58 deficiencies per review. The top areas for deficiencies were: client statements and reporting; registration administration; know-your-client and suitability; policies and procedures; disclosures; and advertising, marketing, and holding out

The top deficiency areas represent approximately 59 per cent of all compliance deficiencies found.

Refer to the press release and 2017 Compliance Report Card on the BCSC’s website.

IFRS - IASB Image

IASB abandons PDF viewer approach

Jun 27, 2017

Saved links to PDF documents on the new IASB website now return a "No valid document" comment without indicating why the document is no longer available nor where it can be found now. Deloitte Global has investigated the issue and found that the IASB has abandoned the PDF viewer approach it had adopted when moving to its new website.

PDFs are now directly available again, however, you have to revisit the IASB news item or other place in the site where you orig­i­nally found the document.

European Union Image

European Commission adopts guidelines on the disclosure of non-financial information

Jun 26, 2017

The EU Directive on disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by large companies and groups addressing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues entered into force on December 6, 2014. The European Commission (EC) has now adopted non-binding guidelines on the disclosure of non-financial information by companies. Their objective is to help companies fulfil the requirement to disclose relevant and useful information on environmental and social matters in a consistent and more comparable way.

The guide­lines propose that any company should disclose relevant in­for­ma­tion on the actual and potential impacts of its op­er­a­tions on the en­vi­ron­ment, and on how current and fore­see­able en­vi­ron­men­tal matters may affect the company. Greater and more relevant trans­parency is expected to lead towards a major reduction of green­house gas emissions and cli­mate-re­silient growth and jobs.

The following documents are available on the EC website:

CPAB - Assurance Image

Brian Hunt to Step Down as CPAB CEO

Jun 26, 2017

On June 26, 2017, Nicholas Le Pan, Chair of the Board of the Canadian Public Accountability Board (CPAB), announced that Brian Hunt, CPAB's CEO, will step down as CEO, at the conclusion of his current contract in February 2018.

"Brian has provided exemplary leadership to CPAB since becoming CEO in 2009, and has been instrumental in CPAB achieving and maintaining its position as a leading, world-class audit regulator", Mr. Le Pan said. “He has driven improvements in audit quality in Canada and has championed involvement by the profession, the director community, regulators, and public company issuers in enhancing audit quality. This has materially added to public confidence in financial reporting, which is essential to investors and other users of financial statements”. On behalf of the Board and staff I thank Brian for his contribution”, Mr. Le Pan added.

“Over the past nine years we have accomplished a lot at CPAB” said Mr. Hunt. “We have been successful because of the quality of our staff and support of the Board. It has and will continue to be a pleasure to work with all of you. After nine years as CPAB CEO it is time to open a new chapter in my career.”

As part of the planned succession, the Board of CPAB has retained an executive search firm to assist in the process.

Re­view the press release on the CPAB's web­site.

IFRS - IASB Image

Updated IASB work plan — Analysis

Jun 26, 2017

Following its June 2017 meeting, the IASB has updated its work plan. Identified below are the changes since last month’s version of the work plan as well as some general observations regarding the new format of the work plan the IASB has chosen since it moved to its new website.

General remarks

On moving to the new website, the IASB made several changes to the pre­sen­ta­tion of the work plan:

  • The new format has gone back to in­di­cat­ing exact timing - by in­di­cat­ing the half year, quarter or even month a de­vel­op­ment is expected to occur. This is much to be lauded, since it makes tracking de­vel­op­ments (and progress and delay) much easier for users.
  • The new work plan has slightly changed cat­e­gories: stan­dard-set­ting projects, main­te­nance projects, research projects, and other projects. Taxonomy projects have become "other"; post-im­ple­men­ta­tion reviews are now "research".
  • The IASB has split up the annual im­prove­ment process into in­di­vid­ual "projects". Although the idea is still to treat certain im­prove­ments through the annual im­prove­ments process, it can no longer be traced on the face of the work plan whether a project is part of the annual im­prove­ment process and which cycle it belongs to. The ex­pec­ta­tion is that the IASB wants to allow itself more flex­i­bil­ity in deciding which im­prove­ment goes into which cycle.
  • The IASB has stopped dating its work plan and there is no longer a PDF version of the work plan available. There a many minor changes between Board meetings (down to spelling) and to report on every little change would distract from the big picture. The intention is therefore to continue to analyze changes on a monthly basis i.e.,after each meeting.

Below is an analysis of all changes made to the work plan since the last update in May 2017. For this analysis, changes have been ignored where the "within three months" to "after six months" clas­si­fi­ca­tion trans­lated smoothly into the new format of fixed dates.

Stan­dard-set­ting projects

Main­te­nance projects

Research projects

  • Goodwill and im­pair­ment — this project was to see a decision on the project direction after 6 months and will now see a dis­cus­sion paper in H1 2018
  • Post-im­ple­men­ta­tion review — IFRS 13 — this project is now con­sid­ered a research project
  • Post-im­ple­men­ta­tion review — IFRS 10-12 — this project is no longer appears in the IASB work plan (was supposed to be initiated after 6 months)
  • Dis­clo­sure ini­tia­tive — Prin­ci­ples of dis­clo­sure — this project was to see a decision on the project direction after 6 months and will now see a feedback statement on the dis­cus­sion paper in H1 2018

Other projects

  • proposed taxonomy update regarding common practice in con­nec­tion with IFRS 13 — expected in H1 2018
  • proposed taxonomy update on IFRS 17 — this project was to see a final update is expected within six months, however, as the next project step a feedback statement on the proposed update in Q4 2017 has been inserted

The above is a faithful com­par­i­son of the IASB work plan at May 18, 2017 and at June 28, 2017. For access to the current IASB work plan at any time, please click here.

US_SEC Image

New SEC chair says that the substantial decline in the number of U.S. IPOs and publicly listed companies in recent years is of great concern to him

Jun 22, 2017

On June 22, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a speech by SEC Chairman, Jay Clayton, where he discusses how fewer publicly listed companies ultimately results in fewer opportunities for Main Street Americans to share in the economy’s growth, at a time when they are asked to do more on their own to save and invest for their future and their children’s futures.

Some companies have shifted capital raising activities to the private markets, where many Main Street Americans have limited access. High-quality companies may choose to go public at a later stage, after much of their early growth has already been achieved. Other companies may choose to stay private. 

In his speech, Mr. Clayton remarks that under his direction and the direction of Bill Hinman, Director of the Division of Corporation Finance, the SEC staff is actively exploring ways in which they can improve the attractiveness of listing on our public markets, while maintaining important investor protections. He looks forward to hearing the views of the panelists – not only on the causes of the decline in IPO activity and the substantial decline in the number of public companies, but also on potential ways to reverse those trends. He expects that the Committee will have valuable recommendations on this topic.

Review the speech on the SEC's website.

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