December

Newsletter on closing out 2010

22 Dec, 2010

Deloitte's IFRS Global Office has published an IFRS in Focus Newsletter – Closing out 2010.

This special edition of IFRS in Focus provides an overview of new and revised International Financial Reporting Standards issued by the IASB and Interpretations issued by the IFRS Interpretations Committee that are effective for December 2010 calendar year-ends and subsequent accounting periods. This newsletter also provides a brief snapshot of each new and revised standard and interpretation as well as the current status of IASB projects.

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New editorial corrections to IFRSs

22 Dec, 2010

The IASB has posted to its website a new batch of Editorial Corrections to IFRSs.

This batch includes editorial corrections and changes to Bound Volume (Red Book) 2010, Bound Volume (Blue Book) 2011, IFRS 7 Financial Instruments: Disclosures – Transfers of Financial Assets (issued October 2010), IFRS 9 Financial Instruments (issued October 2010) and The Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting (issued September 2010).
Click for Editorial corrections to IFRSs.

 

We respond to the EC public consultation on country-by-country reporting

21 Dec, 2010

Deloitte has submitted a response to the European Commission's public consultation that is designed to gather stakeholders' views on country-by-country reporting by multinational companies.

We conclude: "At this stage, we do not believe that imposing incremental country-by-country disclosure in financial statements prepared under IFRSs is warranted in view of the comprehensive post-implementation review of IFRS 8 planned by the IASB." Click to Download our Comment Letter (PDF 72k).

New publications from Deloitte's IFRS Global Office

21 Dec, 2010

New publications from the Deloitte's IFRS Global Office are now available.

Deloitte's IFRS Global Office has published an IFRS in Focus Newsletter IASB issues Practice Statement on management commentary (PDF 91k) describing the recent Practice Statement, and an IFRS in Focus Newsletter IASB issues exposure draft on hedge accounting (PDF 86k) describing the recent exposure draft.

Also, our IFRS Global Office has updated the following IASB Project Insights to reflect the current status of the projects concerned:

Click for an Overview of all Project Insights available.

The Bruce Column — Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa

20 Dec, 2010

The death of Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa at the age of 70, has robbed the IASB of a long and fruitful relationship in the years ahead.

He had only recently taken over the Chairmanship of the IFRS Foundation in July of 2010. And he had already signified the way in which his enormous experience of the European financial and regulatory scene would have been brought to bear. In an interview I did with him just after he took over the chairmanship he said of the whole IFRS and IASB process: "This is an extraordinary success story", and then continued: "What is necessary is to continue it and consolidate it, but there are some big challenges ahead which have to be faced courageously and without any preconditions". That was where his future value lay.

He had been Chairman of the Trustees previously, back in 2005. He had just retired after a seven-year stint at the European Central Bank. And at that point he had decided that he was effectively retiring after 40 years of public service. He had been on the ECB Board since it had been founded in 1998. He had been Chairman of the CONSOB, the main Italian regulatory body. He had been Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. But this initial stint with the Trustees came to a sudden end when he was asked to become Minister of Economy and Finance in the Italian Government. His work as Minister across the next few years helped reduce the Government's deficit and put Italy into a better economic place for the global economic crisis that was to come.

But it was that initial period as Chairman of Trustees which opened his eyes to the nature of what the IASB was achieving. "When I took the Chair of the Trustees I discovered an institution that was, in many respects, a much more advanced experience in international co-operation than all those I had practised before. The Board is not composed of national officials spending most of their time in national institutions, meeting only three or four times a year like, for example, the IOSCO Technical Committee or the Basel Committee. The IASB operates as a full-time board", he said. And he drew another distinction. "The IASB is not acting under the direction of national bodies. It is structurally committed to the international profile of its activity. So it is not a negotiating body between national systems."

He talked in that interview of the changes which the IASB had already wrought. "Before the IASB there was no consistency and comparability of data", he said. "Now, ten years later, IFRSs are used by a growing number of companies in the majority of countries around the world. Even in the US — where IFRSs are not yet adopted for domestic issuers - the divergence in the standards is significantly less than it was ten years ago. An agreed method of comparison is an essential precondition for a well-functioning global economy, a more efficient allocation of capital, and greater protection for investors."

And in the same interview he made his position on the importance of governance very clear. "It is a formula invented by the creators of the IASB", he said, "This formula proved very effective." But he accepted that not everyone was going to agree, partly because it represented change. "It is somewhat removed from the traditions of some countries, particularly of the EU, where setting accounting standards used to be the prerogative of the legislature", he said. "The debates on issues of governance can be explained by the fact that the formula on which the organisation is based represents a big innovation on the European tradition. The innovation proved necessary because the EU had failed to develop the consensus required to create common accounting rules through the more traditional method of public legislation."

In the most recent interview I did with him, a matter of a few weeks ago, his enthusiasm for the task ahead was undiminished. He will be much missed in the years ahead.

Robert Bruce
December 2010

 

IASB amends IFRS 1 and IAS 12

20 Dec, 2010

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has published amendments to IAS 12 'Income Taxes' and IFRS 1 'First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards'.

IAS 12 Income Taxes requires an entity to measure deferred tax relating to an asset depending on whether the entity expects to recover the carrying amount of an asset through use or sale.  The amendment provides a practical solution to the application of these requirements in relation to investment property under IAS 40 Investment Property, introducing a presumption that recovery of the carrying amount of an investment property will normally be through sale.
The amendments to IFRS 1 First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards made two limited amendments:
  • replacing references to "1 January 2004" with "the date of transition to IFRSs", eliminating the need for entities adopting IFRS for the first time to restate derecognition transactions occurring prior to the date of transition to IFRS
  • providing guidance on how an entity should resume presenting financial statements in accordance with IFRS after a period when the entity was unable to comply with IFRS because its functional currency was subject to severe hyperinflation.
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Death of Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Chair of the Trustees of the IFRS Foundation

19 Dec, 2010

The Trustees and Monitoring Board of the IFRS Foundation have released condolences on the sudden death of Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Chair of the Trustees of the IFRS Foundation.

Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa was appointed Chair of the Trustees of the IFRS Foundation in June 2010. He was a President of Notre Europe and Chairman of Promontory Europe, Italian Minister of Economy and Finance (2006-08) and Chairman of the Ministerial Committee of the International Monetary Fund (2007-08). He served as Chairman of the Trustees of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation from January 2006 until he was appointed Italian Minister of Economy and Finance. He was a member of the first Executive Board of the European Central Bank (1998-2005).

Previously he was Chairman of the Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (1997-98), Deputy Director General of the Banca d'Italia (1984-97) and Director General for Economic and Financial Affairs at the Commission of the European Communities (1979-83). He has been Joint Secretary to the Delors Committee (1988-89), Chairman of the Banking Advisory Committee of the EC (1988-91), Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (1993-97) and Chairman of the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (2000-05).

Mr Padoa-Schioppa was also the author of a number of books and articles on economic and financial matters as well as on European and international affairs. He graduated from Luigi Bocconi University and has an MSc from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Joel Osnoss, Global Managing Director — IFRS Clients and Markets and Veronica Poole, Global Managing Director — IFRS Technical, said:

"We are deeply saddened by the sudden death of Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa. The tremendous effect he had on the accounting profession globally, and indeed on world finance in general, cannot be overstated. The impact of the contributions he made over the course of his career will be felt around the world for generations to come. Our thoughts are with his family, as they mourn the passing of this great man."

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Survey on accounting for sustainability practices released by CIMA, AICPA and CICA

17 Dec, 2010

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) have released Evolution of corporate sustainability practices – Perspectives from the UK, US and Canada, a survey measuring the state of accounting for sustainability in the UK and North America.

Although the results may reflect a higher degree of interest in sustainability among respondents who opted to participate in the survey (and so may not necessarily reflect the entire population), the survey is of interest as the global financial community pushes towards more integrated reporting. Key findings include:

  • Although compliance with regulatory requirements still remains the most common driver of business sustainability, profitability and other strategic factors are also significant
  • Large companies have more robust sustainability capabilities than small companies
  • Contributions by an entity's finance function to sustainability programs are highly valued, yet underdeveloped
  • UK based organisations appear to be ahead in implementing sustainability practices and finance function involvement compared to their North American counterparts.

Click for press release (link to CICA website). The report is available at www.cica.ca/sustainability.

CIMA, AICPA and CICA are all founding members of the Accounting Bodies Network of the Prince's Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) Project, which is meeting in London. The Princes of Wales' speech to the meeting is available here. An excerpt:

"The new integrated reporting model which the IIRC [International Integrated Reporting Committee] is helping to develop will address each of these issues — the failure to value and price our natural capital, the narrowness and retrospective emphasis of most accounting information and our disproportionate focus on the short-term.

...my A4S Project's main achievement in 2010 was helping to establish the IIRC. And I very much hope that one of its main achievements in 2011 will be working out how we can better value natural capital. As soon as possible we have to start putting a price on the multi-trillion dollar contribution that natural capital makes to the world's economy. The problem is time is simply not on our side, but the task is not impossible."

Publications by national Deloitte member firms

17 Dec, 2010

New publications by Deloitte (Denmark) and Deloitte (Colombia).

Deloitte Denmark has developed a publication (PDF 200k) about the IASB's Exposure Draft (ED) Insurance Contracts. The 24-page publication (which is in the Danish language) provides an overview of the ED and examines the expected impact on Danish life and non-life insurance companies, including focus on the new part of the statement of comprehensive income for insurance contracts.

Deloitte Colombia has translated the IFRS Presentation and Disclosure Checklists for 2010 into the Spanish language. The IFRS Presentation and Disclosure Checklist for 2010 is formatted to allow the recording of a review of financial statements, with a place to indicate yes/no/not-applicable for each presentation and disclosure item. Click for:

Notes from Day 5 of December IASB meeting

17 Dec, 2010

The IASB is meeting in London on 13-17 December 2010 for its regular December meeting, some of which is a joint meeting with the FASB.

We've posted Deloitte observer notes from the topics discussed on day five of the meeting. The topics discussed were as follows (click through for direct access to the notes for that particular topic):

Friday, 17 December 2010 (IASB only)

Click here to go to the preliminary and unofficial Notes Taken by Deloitte Observers for the entire meeting.

Correction list for hyphenation

These words serve as exceptions. Once entered, they are only hyphenated at the specified hyphenation points. Each word should be on a separate line.