October

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Newsletter on amendments to IFRS 7

19 Oct, 2010

Deloitte's IFRS Global Office has published an IFRS in Focus Newsletter – IASB amends disclosures about transfers of financial assets.

This newsletter describes the recently published amendments to IFRS 7 that increase the disclosure requirements for transactions involving transfers of financial assets. These amendments are intended to provide greater transparency around risk exposures of transactions where a financial asset is transferred but the transferor retains some level of continuing involvement in the asset.

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ISO standard on brand valuation

19 Oct, 2010

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published ISO 10668:2010 Brand valuation Requirements for monetary brand valuation, which specifies requirements for procedures and methods of monetary brand value measurement for many purposes, including for accounting purposes.

ISO 10668:2010 specifies a high-level framework for brand valuation, including objectives, bases of valuation, approaches to valuation, methods of valuation and sourcing of quality data and assumptions. It also specifies methods for reporting the results of such valuations. As a high-level and wide-scope document, it does provides general guidance only and is considered to be largely consistent with existing valuation practice.

The standard may be Downloaded from ISO's website.

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ISAR considers corporate reporting, climate-change reporting and corporate governance

19 Oct, 2010

The twenty-seventh session of the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) was held in Geneva on 13-15 October 2010. ISAR assists developing countries and economies in transition to implement best practices in corporate transparency and accounting in order to facilitate investment flows and economic development.

ISAR's annual sessions regularly involve over 300 delegates from more than 100 countries.

The key outcomes from the session include:

  • Capacity-building framework for high-quality corporate reporting. The Group of Experts further underscored the need for high-quality corporate reports to facilitate the mobilisation of domestic and international financial resources and to foster investors' confidence. The paper considered at the meeting highlights IFRS (and the IFRS for SMEs and International Public Sector Accounting Standards) as key planks in this framework.
  • Climate change-related corporate reporting. The Group of Experts recognised that a harmonised approach to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions disclosure is necessary to improve high-quality corporate reporting to policymakers, investors and other stakeholders and as such also to facilitate low-carbon policies such as, inter alia, "cap-and-trade" systems and carbon taxes.
  • Corporate governance disclosures. The Group of Experts reiterated the importance of corporate governance disclosure for attracting investment and promoting sustainable and stable economic growth. ISAR recognised that high-quality disclosure in this area adds value for policymakers, shareholders and other stakeholders (see also our earlier story).

Click for Agreed conclusions from the session (link to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development website).

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IASB and FASB consult on effective dates for convergence accounting standards

18 Oct, 2010

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) today published documents seeking views on when new financial reporting standards resulting primarily from their work to improve and achieve convergence of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) should become effective.

With a number of major projects planned to be completed in 2011, the boards are seeking views on whether or how to sequence effective dates in order to reduce the burden to interested parties. In deciding how to proceed, the IASB will consider the needs of jurisdictions already using IFRSs as well as those planning to do so. Feedback from the consultation will inform the boards as they jointly develop an implementation plan for those new standards that helps stakeholders to manage both the pace and cost of change.

The request for views is open for comment until 31 January 2011.

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Revenue recognition for technology companies

18 Oct, 2010

In June 2010, the IASB and the FASB jointly published an Exposure Draft (ED) on Revenue from Contracts with Customers.

If adopted, the proposals would supersede IAS 11 Construction Contracts and IAS 18 Revenueand related interpretations. The core principle proposed in the ED would require an entity to recognise revenue to depict the transfer of goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration that it expects to receive in exchange for those goods or services.

What makes this ED even more significant is that the two GAAPs differ most in their approach: current IFRS has comparatively little guidance, compared to the series of detailed rules on application that US GAAP has.

Deloitte UK has now published Revenue recognition for technology companies, giving examples of how the proposed approach in the Exposure Draft will be applied in scenarios common to technology companies who report under both IFRS and US GAAP.

Click for Revenue recognition for technology companies (PDF 2,295k). Comment deadline on the ED is 22 October 2010.

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IFRS adoption will need five years preparation time

18 Oct, 2010

In a comment letter on the call for views on aspects of possible IFRS transition of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) supports the goal of a single set of high-quality, comprehensive accounting standards to be used by public companies in the preparation of transparent and comparable financial reports throughout the world and notes that the standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are best positioned to become those standards.

However, the AICPA warns that companies will need five years preparation time to adopt IFRS if the SEC requires two years of historical comparative financial statements. If only one year of comparative financial statements is required, a four-year transition period would be needed to adopt IFRS. The AICPA would support a decision by the SEC to require only one year of comparative financial statements.

Click for AICPA comment letter to the SEC (PDF 269k, link to AICPA website).

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IASB and FASB announce public roundtable meetings on insurance contracts proposals

18 Oct, 2010

The IASB and FASB plan to hold several public roundtable meetings in December 2010 to discuss the their joint Insurance Contracts project.

The purpose of these roundtable meetings is to listen to the views of, and obtain information from, interested stakeholders about the IASB/FASB exposure draft on insurance contracts.

The dates and locations of the roundtables are as follows (exact times and locations are yet to be announced):

  • Tokyo - Thursday 9 December 2010
  • London - Thursday 16 December 2010
  • Norwalk, Connecticut - Monday 20 December 2010

Those who wish to participate in the roundtables in Tokyo and London must register to do so by 1 November 2010. Those who wish to participate in the roundtable in Norwalk must register by 15 November 2010. Click for FASB media release (United States session only, link to FASB website).

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October 2010 IASB meeting – changes to agenda

16 Oct, 2010

There have been changes to the agenda and running order on all meeting days of the October 2010 IASB meeting.

The updated agenda is available here.

 

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IASB remains committed to issue a final standard on consolidation at the end of 2010

15 Oct, 2010

On 11 October 2010, the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) announced that its two round-table meetings to seek views from stakeholders on the IASB staff draft on consolidated financial statements have been rescheduled from Monday 25 October to Monday 22 November 2010.

The IASB is participating in the round-table meetings and has now published a statement that, at this stage, it remains committed to issue the final standard on consolidation at the end of 2010 despite the delay of these meetings. However, it will review its timetable for completion of the final standard on consolidation following the round-table meetings.

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IASB and FASB announce public roundtable meetings on lease accounting proposals

15 Oct, 2010

The IASB and FASB plan to hold several public round-table meetings in December 2010 and January 2011 to discuss the their joint Leases project.

The purpose of these round-table meetings is to listen to the views of, and obtain information from, interested stakeholders about the IASB/FASB exposure draft on leases.

The dates and locations of the roundtables are as follows (exact times and locations are yet to be announced):

  • London - Friday 17 December 2010
  • Hong Kong - Monday 20 December 2010
  • Chicago, Illinois - Wednesday 5 January 2011
  • Norwalk, Connecticut - Thursday 6 January 2011

Those who wish to participate in the round tables must register to do so by 1 November 2010. Click for IASB announcement (link to IASB website) and FASB media release (United States sessions only, link to FASB website).

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