In the public statement, Mr. Piwowar stated that some companies have complained about unanticipated compliance difficulties. In order to better understand the nature of these difficulties, he's seeking public input on any unexpected challenges that issuers have experienced as they prepare for compliance with the rule and whether relief is needed.

Review the public statement on the SEC's website.

His term as Chair is for two years from March 2017. Mr. Servais will succeed Mr. Ryozo Himino, Vice Minister for International Affairs of the Japan Financial Services Agency.

Review the press release on the IASB's website.

It is the old cliché. What gets measured gets managed. And for a long time that has been a mantra in the field of getting to grips with greenhouse gas emissions and moves toward a lower-carbon economy. All the efforts in the fields of accounting for sustainability and integrated reporting have it at their heart. But it has been as much a cultural change as it has been a financial one. And that sort of change takes more time than people imagine at the outset. But with the publication of the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures the whole process moves forward.

Review the full article on our Global IAS Plus website.

Independent board directors join Deloitte specialists from around the globe to share their insights into the challenges facing boards today and the strategies they can employ to overcome those issues.

Review the Directors’ Alert.

As the conference's focus was "Navigating Through Digital Transformation Towards Better Accountability", Mr. Hoogervorst expanded on the relation between digital reporting and financial reports:

I have been asked if financial reports will become redundant as investors and others get more direct access to a wider range of information. I don’t think that will happen. Nine in ten investors surveyed by the CFA Institute say that annual reports are important to them. The more information that becomes available, the more important it is to be able to sift trustworthy information from the more spurious. Financial statements will remain relevant, even in a digital world.

Mr. Hoogervorst then went on to explain that while digital reporting developments offer a host of new opportunities they also need to be complemented by "analogue" developments and the fact that investors increasingly consume financial information electronically also meant that part of the IASB's job was to make it easy for them to access IFRS data in that manner.

Review the full transcript of Mr. Hoogervorst's remarks on the IASB's website.

The insights, captured in the report Future Trends in Sustainability Reporting, provide practical guidance to reporting organizations working to respond to the risks and opportunities on the path to a sustainable future.

Review the report on the GRI's website.

The SEC partially stayed compliance with the conflict minerals rule after an April 2014 appellate court ruling found that the rule violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Mr. Piwowar noted:

"[T]he temporary transition period provided for in the Rule has expired. And the reporting period beginning January 1, 2017, is the first reporting period for which no issuer falls within the terms of that transition period. In light of this, as well as the unexpected duration of the litigation, I am directing the staff to consider whether the 2014 guidance is still appropriate and whether any additional relief is appropriate in the interim."

A comment letter page has been set up on the SEC’s Web site.

Review Mr. Piwowar’s statements on the conflict minerals rule and on the reconsideration of the rule’s implementation on the SEC’s Web site.

In the outreach, 15 banks confirmed that current hedge accounting requirements do not fully accommodate the way a bank manages interest rate risk. Particular challenges are:

• The use of open portfolios,
• the fact that interest rate risk is managed using net positions instead of gross positions, and
• the difficulties of designating particular items as part of a hedge accounting relationship.

While IFRS 9 has addressed some of the above issues, a comprehensive solution for dynamic risk management is still lacking. Therefore, EFRAG's fact finding exercise, which also includes theoretical background to the range of practices employed by banks and considers both the risk management and the accounting perspectives, is meant to help the IASB in developing an improved approach to reporting the effect of dynamic risk management activities in the financial statements.

Review the press release and the outreach report on the EFRAG's website.

Under the amendments, an entity should perform its annual or interim goodwill impairment test by comparing the fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount. An entity should recognize an impairment charge for the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit’s fair value, but the loss recognized should not exceed the total amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit.

Eliminating Step 2 from the goodwill impairment test under Topic 350 also results in guidance that more closely aligns with the requirements in IFRS as indicated in IAS 36, Impairment of Assets, for some aspects of the goodwill impairment test. IAS 36 requires an entity to test goodwill for impairment using a one-step quantitative impairment test; however, that test is at the cash-generating unit or group of cash-generating units level and compares the carrying amount of that unit with its recoverable amount.

Review the ASU and a summary on the FASB's website.