The proposed changes could make it easier and less costly for dissident candidates to be elected to corporate boards, which could have ripple effects on corporate governance practices and negotiating strategies for activists. Use of a universal proxy would require the dissident to provide advance notice of its nominees and incur the cost of preparing dissident proxy materials and sending those proxy materials to potentially more shareholders than it would otherwise solicit.

Review the update on Osler's website.

In the publication, they apply the Directive’s requirements in a "mock-up" management report of a fictional company in the food industry, which will especially help companies without prior experience in reporting on non-financial and diversity information.

Around 6,000 European companies are affected by this Directive which Member States have to transpose into their national laws by December 6, 2016.

Review the guide on the Accountancy Europe's website.

This paper offers an update on the AASB approach to country-by-country reporting and argues that while much of the tax transparency initiative to date has been driven by the tax authorities, in order to remain relevant in an ever-changing regulatory environment, it is time for accounting standard-setters to take a leadership role in improving income tax disclosures for users of financial reports.

Review the paper on the AASB's website.

Digital currency – A case for standard setting activity recommends that the IASB develop a standard that addresses the accounting for investments in intangible assets or other commodity type assets that are not financial instruments or inventory, since the current alternatives to account for digital currencies (IAS 2 or IAS 38) do not provide relevant information to users of financial statements. This issue also highlights a broader issue with IFRSs in that there is no accounting standard that deals with investments in intangible assets or other commodity type assets that are not financial instruments or inventory.

Review the paper on the AASB's website.

In our CFO’s corner series, Jerome Townsend, Senior Manager in Deloitte’s Audit - Public practice, who also helped establish Deloitte’s internal Audit Analytics team, discusses how in the spectrum of hindsight - insight - foresight, the information we rely on often resides squarely within the hindsight category, leaving the insight and foresight components to individual interpretation and ‘gut feeling.’ Many organizations have survived and even flourished in this respect, but as technology, data and talent continue to expand and evolve, the competitive advantage continues to shift to those who know how to turn information into intelligence. Organizations that do this well are known as Insight Driven Organizations (IDOs).

Visit the CFO’s corner in Deloitte’s Centre for Financial Reporting to read this editorial as well as any previous articles that you may have missed.

This bulletin highlights observations about various financial reporting topics relevant to reporting issuers that prepare financial statements in accordance with IFRS. The objective of this bulletin is to provide useful information to market participants that may assist in preparing future financial reports.

The staff of the OSC wants to:

• communicate considerations for disclosure effectiveness
• share their observations on recent areas of focus
• highlight their expectations for implementation of several new accounting standards.

When disclosing financial information, the staff of the OSC encourages reporting issuers to:

• take a "fresh look" at their financial statement disclosures, and consider how information could be more effectively and efficiently presented
• consider financial reports as communication documents as opposed to a "compliance exercise".

A reporting issuer's management, audit committee, and external auditor each has an important role to play in contributing to disclosure effectiveness.

Review the bulletin on the OSC's website.

The Board decided to set the mandatory effective date for IFRS 17 for annual periods beginning on or after January 1, 2021. Darrel Scott, Board member, and Andrea Pryde, project leader of the Insurance Contracts project, discuss the deliberations at that meeting.

Review the podcast (approx. 9 minutes long) on the IASB's website.

The report includes staff recommendations on the following topics:

• Core company business information
• Company performance, financial information, and future prospects
• Management and certain security holders
• Corporate governance
• Registration statement and prospectus provisions
• Exhibits
• Manner of delivery recommendations

Review the report on the SEC’s website.

In his column, he discusses how Melanie McLaren, Executive Director, Audit at the Financial Reporting Council, was launching an event at the Deloitte Academy to try and help pin down the many issues surrounding corporate reporting in a complicated, volatile, and ever-changing business world.

He mentions that McLaren is expecting a deep debate as a result of recent questions raised by politicians over the level of trust in business; the possibility of extending business representation to ordinary employees; a range of reporting, environmental and sustainability issues; and those of gender and pay. For her the reporting was what was important. ‘What gets reported drives behaviour’, she said.

Review the full article our UK Accounting Plus website.

Mr. Schnurr began his tenure in October 2014, but suffered injuries from a serious bicycle accident in April 2016. Before joining the SEC staff, Mr. Schnurr had retired from Deloitte LLP, where he was vice chairman and senior professional practice director and specialized in financial and SEC reporting for public companies. He was a senior partner for mergers and acquisition services from 1994 to 2002 and a deputy managing partner of the firm’s professional practice from 2002 to 2009 where he was responsible for quality control and risk management of the firm’s audit and advisory services.

Mr. Bricker assumed the role of interim chief accountant in July 2016.

For more information, see the press releases on Mr. Schnurr’s retirement and Mr. Bricker’s appointment on the SEC’s Web site.