New topics — Agenda Consultation feedback

Date recorded:

The IASB received suggestions for additional projects to be added to the Board’s work programme.  Paper 24F summaries those suggestions.  The staff will ask the IASB for preliminary decisions about its future agenda at the May Board meeting. Accordingly, the discussion in April was intended to provide some initial analysis in anticipation of the decision-making sessions in May.

The staff assessment is that six project suggestions merit further consideration 

(a) IFRS reporting by subsidiaries

(b) General principles for separate financial statements

(c) Digital currencies, including cryptocurrencies

(d) Wider corporate reporting initiatives, including impact of environmental risks on financial reporting

(e) Reporting by not-for-profit entities

(f) Withdrawal of IAS 26 Accounting and Reporting by Retirement Benefit Plans

Additionally, the staff has documented other suggestions made by respondents that the staff think require some additional research or outreach to the submitter before they can be onsidered by the IASB.  They are:

(a) Non-reciprocal transactions

(b) First-time adoption of IFRS Standards when national GAAP is close to IFRS Standards

(c)  Clarify when effects of first-time adoption should be recognised outside retained earnings

(d) Variable and contingent consideration

(e) Risk sharing / collaborative arrangements

(f) Consideration of the choice of language and terminology and its translation consequences for IFRS Standards

Board discussion

At this session, the Board members touched on the individual items that were identified by the staff for further consideration.

One Board member suggested to take into account outreach performed with CMAC on the issue on separate financial statements.

As regards digital currency, a Board member said that the topic had been deliberated when discussing customer loyalty programmes but at that time the issue had been found to be too premature. This had changed in the meanwhile.

The issue on wider corporate reporting had been discussed at the Trustees’ meeting. The Trustees had decided to dedicate some staff to the issue but they also decided that the IASB should not be involved directly. Therefore several Board members suggested to strike this issue from the list.

One Board member did not see the need to take on a project on non-reciprocal transactions, however, the Research Director said that it would be good to get some clarity in that area.

As regards first-time adoption when national GAAP was close to IFRS, a Board member suggested to perform some research.   She furthermore proposed referring the issue on the effects of first-time adoption to the Interpretations Committee.

The same Board member said that the issue on variable consideration should only be considered further if the scope was limited. The Research Director and a fellow Board member countered that this was a widespread issue and that the Interpretations Committee had been struggling with this issue for a while, finding it too broad.

For the risk sharing issue a Board member suggested reaching out to ASAF.

Some Board members found that the language and terminology issue was an operational issue and therefore not a matter for Board deliberations.

A Board member brought up the IAS 8 hierarchy as it still requires preparers to consider other sets of standards with a similar framework when there was no IFRS requirement. The Board member said that this was important 15 years ago when IFRS guidance was patchy. Now that IFRS is a comprehensive set of Standards, this requirement should be reconsidered.

One Board member felt that the issue of combined financial statements should also be considered as it was a widespread issue. While it might not have led to significant comments during the Agenda Consultation, it had often been raised in outreaches.

Another Board member suggested a project on IAS 20 in view of the discussions on pollutant pricing mechanisms.

The Technical Director who led the session summarised that the language issue, the IFRS 1 issues and the wider corporate reporting issue should not be brought back to the Board. Instead the IAS 8 hierarchy issue, the IAS 20 issue and the issue on combined financial statements should be added to the list.

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