November

Webcast on Framework-based teaching of principle-based standards

19 Nov, 2010

On Tuesday 7 December 2010 the IFRS Foundation will hold a webcast designed for those teaching IFRSs with focus on Framework-based teaching of principle-based accounting standards.

Topic: Framework-based teaching of principle-based standards
Date and time: Tuesday, 7 December 2010, 10:00 - 11:30 GMT and repeated 15:00 - 16:30 GMT
More information on the webcast and registration: Click here
More information on IAS Plus: Summary of the IFRS Framework

Notes from Day 3 of November IASB meeting

19 Nov, 2010

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is holding its regular November meeting in Norwalk, United States.

Day 3 of the meeting, held on 18 November 2010, was joint meeting with the United States Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). We have also posted the notes from the late session of Day 2 of the meeting where the conceptual framework was discussed.

The topics discussed were as follows (click through for Deloitte observer notes on each topic):

  • Conceptual Framework — the Reporting Entity
    • Entity versus proprietary perspective
    • Requirement for combined financial statements
    • Revised project timeline
  • Emission Trading Schemes
    • Recognition of a liability for excess emissions in excess of initial allocation and measurement of liabilities in an emission trading scheme
    • Initial and subsequent measurement of purchased allowances (assets) (cap and trade scheme)
    • Balance sheet presentation of assets and liabilities in a cap and trade scheme
  • Fair Value Measurement
    • Premiums and discounts in a fair value measurement (including blockage factors)
    • Measurement uncertainty analysis disclosure
    • Portfolios of financial instruments
    • Measuring the fair value of own equity

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

Notes from Day 2 of November IASB meeting

18 Nov, 2010

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is holding its regular November meeting in Norwalk, United States.

Day 2 of the meeting, held on 17 November 2010, was joint meeting with the United States Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). We have also posted the notes from the late session of Day 1 of the meeting (IASB-only) on post-employment benefits.

The topics discussed were as follows (click through for Deloitte observer notes on each topic):

The Board also discussed the conceptual framework (reporting entity phase). We will post notes from this additional topic on Friday 19 November.

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

IFRS Foundation enhances stakeholder representation in IFRS XBRL advisory committees

18 Nov, 2010

The Trustees of the IFRS Foundation today announced the new membership of the Foundation's two IFRS XBRL advisory committees – the XBRL Advisory Council (XAC) and the XBRL Quality Review Team (XQRT).

The existing membership base of the two committees has been enhanced through increased representation from auditors and preparers, financial institutions, accounting bodies, standard-setters, regulators and software vendors from around the world.
  • The XBRL Advisory Council provides strategic advice to the Trustees and the Foundation's XBRL team on the future development and adoption of the XBRL Taxonomy for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs).
  • The XBRL Quality Review Team helps to assure the quality of XBRL taxonomy by reviewing taxonomies developed by the IFRS Foundation.

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is an XML-based computer software language that is developed specifically for the automation of business information requirements, such as the preparation, sharing and analysis of financial reports, statements, and audit schedules. XBRL labels companies' financial and other data with codes from standard lists (taxonomies) so that investors and analysts can more easily locate and analyse desired information. XBRL makes the analysis and exchange of corporate financial information easier and more reliable by allowing data to be extracted and processed automatically by XBRL-aware applications.

Click for IFRS Foundation Press Release and our XBRL Project Page.

IFRIC Review newsletter issued

18 Nov, 2010

The November 2010 edition of IFRIC Review has been issued.

The IFRIC Review newsletter examines matters discussed at the IASB's IFRS Interpretations Committee (IFRIC). The November edition (PDF 77k) discusses the IFRIC meeting held on 4-5 November 2010.

 

Accountancy Age Award for Ken Wild

18 Nov, 2010

Ken Wild has been awarded the 2010 Accountancy Age Award for Outstanding Industry Contribution.

Accountancy Agelauds him as "as one of London's finest technical minds" and praises his "dedication to core principles that has helped him build a reputation for integrity".

Ken Wild was a partner at Deloitte for 26 years until his retirement in 2010, for much of that time he led the UK firm's technical department and, more recently, the Global IFRS Leadership Team. Mr Wild was also a member of the ASB from 1994 to 2003 and IFRIC from 2003 to 2009. He also helped maintain IAS Plus and has written numerous articles and books on accounting. He is currently a Fellow, Judge Business School, Cambridge University, where he lectures on financial reporting in the School's masters' programmes.

Notes from Day 1 of November IASB meeting

17 Nov, 2010

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is holding its regular November meeting in Norwalk, United States.

Day 1 of the meeting, held on 16 November 2010, was an IASB-only meeting. The topics discussed were as follows (click through for Deloitte observer notes on each topic):

The Board also discussed post-employment benefits. Notes from this additional topic will be posted on Thursday 18 November.

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

EFRAG extends comment period on Financial Statement Presentation

17 Nov, 2010

In view of the recent decision of the IASB and the FASB to postpone further detailed redeliberations on the financial statement presentation project until after June 2011, EFRAG has extended the deadline for comments on EFRAG's paper on the IASB's staff draft of the ED Financial Statement Presentation until 30 April 2011. The EFRAG paper, which is based on EFRAG's preliminary views, is intended to stimulate the debate by European constituents on the proposals included in the Draft ED and serves as a basis for the outreach events in Europe.

An overview of all dates and places is available in this press release (link to EFRAG website). The feedback received during the meetings with constituents around Europe will be provided to the IASB upon completion of the outreach events, and will be taken into consideration in planning further steps on the project.

 

APEC report discusses 'diversity in accounting standards'

16 Nov, 2010

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) has released its 2010 Economic Policy Report (prepared by its Economic Committee) after it was endorsed by Foreign and Trade Ministers at APEC's annual meeting in Yokohama, Japan.

APEC is an inter-governmental organisation with 21 member economies in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, Canada, The People's Republic of China, Japan and the United States.

The Economic Policy Report discusses various corporate governance matters, including the international harmonisation of accounting standards. In this regard, whilst acknowledging the benefits of IFRS, the report consider the possibility of maintaining 'diversity' in accounting standards, or permitting choice. This stance is quite different to the direction of the G20, which more strongly favours convergence of accounting standards (see our earlier story).

An extract from the report follows:

International Accounting Standards Harmonization

Harmonization with international accounting standards is an issue that gains and loses momentum with some regularity but is relevant to corporate governance. IFRS are not universally accepted in APEC, and debate continues about their merits versus other accounting standards. In particular, there is a corporate governance concern that some accounting standards may be better at encouraging long-term, stable growth than at focusing on one accounting period's earnings.

However, there are also significant benefits to harmonizing accounting standards... Universal accounting standards backed by universal professional performance standards would allow easy comparison among companies, enabling more efficient capital allocation and global corporate performance, as long as the standard chosen incentivizes long-term performance over earnings manipulation or smoothing.

Such standardization increases pressure on companies by forcing them to compete for capital with all other competitors for capital in the world. However, if the standard chosen allows fraud to go undetected for some period, the world might suffer a global simultaneous accounting scandal crisis. Given the events of the past decade such a scenario should be considered. Thus, it may be important to maintain diversity in accounting standards, or even to allow companies to choose which standards to use along with choosing which economy and stock exchange in which to compete for capital.

Click for APEC press release (link to the APEC website).

Newsletter on the revisions to IFRS 9 for financial liability accounting

15 Nov, 2010

Deloitte's IFRS Global Office has published an IFRS in Focus Newsletter – IASB issues revisions to IFRS 9 for financial liability accounting.

This newsletter describes the recently published revised version of IFRS 9 Financial Instruments that retains the requirements for classification and measurement of financial assets that were published in November 2009 but adds guidance on the classification and measurement of financial liabilities.

Click for:

 

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.