Project update (Agenda Paper 15)

In this paper, the staff provided an update to the ISSB’s consultation on agenda priorities, which included a question regarding the potential for the IASB and ISSB to jointly undertake a project on integration in reporting. Because such a project could build upon the IASB’s Exposure Draft (ED) Management Commentary, feedback on the ISSB’s consultation could affect the IASB’s decision about the direction of the management commentary project.

The staff also included relevant background to and the evolving landscape around the management commentary project, summarising the origin of the project, the ED Management Commentary and the feedback received in response, the interaction with the Integrated Reporting Framework, and the ISSB’s agenda consultation.

The staff also set out potential next steps to be discussed at a future joint IASB and ISSB meeting, which could include:

• Collaborating with the ISSB in advancing the project
• Proceeding with the IASB project and drawing on input from the ISSB where necessary
• Pausing the project until the new reporting landscape becomes more settled

The IASB was not asked to make any decisions in this meeting.

IASB discussion

IASB members welcomed the summary of the project’s state ahead of the joint meeting with the ISSB in January.

It was noted that most of the analysis of respondents’ feedback is still to be completed and therefore there were limited preliminary views on the potential next steps.

However, it was noted that the corporate reporting context is very different when compared with that at the start of the project, following the formation of the ISSB and integration of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) within the IFRS Foundation. IASB members noted it will be important to consider the purpose of the practice statement in this updated context and whether it should be content focused (in which case there may be overlap between IFRS Accounting Standards, IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards and the Integrated Reporting Framework), or whether it will be focused on being applicable across many jurisdictions that have different regulations (for example, a preparer reporting in accordance with IFRS Accounting Standards that is not required to report in accordance with IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards may require a discrete practice statement within IFRS Accounting Standards).