Whilst the publication is primarily focused on pension fund performance in various economies, the report also highlights the likely impacts of the recent changes to IAS 19 Employee Benefits:

Click for OECD press release (link to OECD website).

The Interpretation addresses the following issues:

• recognition of production stripping costs as an asset;
• initial measurement of the stripping activity asset; and
• subsequent measurement of the stripping activity asset.

The near final draft (PDF 226k, link to IASB website) is available to eIFRS subscribers only.

• 5 August 2011 — Ian Mackintosh: The IASB needs input from investors and others on which projects it should undertake next

All Investor Perspectives are archived on the IASB's website.

The Board seeks to align the effective dates for all phases of the project (both completed and ongoing). The proposed deferral would only change the date when IFRS 9 would be mandatory. Entities could still elect to use IFRS 9 Financial Instruments before 2015.

Comments on the exposure draft are due on 21 October 2011.

Click for:

• Press release (link to IASB website)
• Exposure draft (link to IASB website)
• Our Financial instruments — Effective date of IFRS 9 project page

The survey is based on the views of 56 major banking groups on the topic of loan impairment. Banks surveyed included seven of the top 10 global banking groups measured by total assets and span banks headquartered in Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia Pacific and North America.

Findings include:

• There was broad consensus that, even though the details of the new impairment requirements are not yet finalised, the expected loss approach should be the basis for the new impairment model. However, just over a quarter of banking groups are unconvinced that the introduction of an expected loss model will make financial statements more useful and over half believe it will result in a lack of comparability between institutions
• Many banking institutions have laid the framework for meeting the proposed effective date of 2015. Just over half will have started their implementation by the end of 2011, and nearly 90% will have started by 2012. The biggest concern generally expressed is about gathering valid data on expected losses in the foreseeable future and on lifetime expected losses
• Half of respondents do not believe an expected loss model will change their approach to the way they price lending; 41% believe it might
• Overall, whilst cost and operational impacts also featured significantly, wider business and commercial impacts were of major concern to respondents, e.g. the effect on capital and accounting reserves on transition, and making financial results understandable and comparable. Despite this, awareness of the key issues at board level was not always significant.

Click for:

• IFRS 9 Impairment Survey 2011 – A changing landscape (PDF 1.2MB, August 2011, 28 pages)
• Deloitte press release (link to Deloitte.com website)
• Our Financial Instruments – Impairment project page.

In November 2010, the Services of the Internal Market and Services Directorate General of the European Commission started a public consultation in order to gather stakeholders' views on ways to improve the disclosure by enterprises of non-financial information (e.g. social and environmental).

The discussions of the expert group focused on four topics: "Norms, Principles and Guidelines", "Costs-benefits for companies", "Business Accountability" and "The Capital Market". The Experts are now invited to submit written comments on the issues discussed. The next meetings are expected to take place on 12 September and on 30 September 2011.

Click for EC's meeting meetings (PDF 40k).

• The future of IFRS and the path forward for the IASB
• IFRSs technical update:
• active projects
• new and amended IFRSs
• Regulatory update
• IFRS implementation in Latin America

Additional conference details, including registration, are available here.

• Thursday, 4 August 2011 – Update on the general hedge accounting project Webcasts will be held at 10.00am and 4.00pm, London time. Registration is available through the IASB's website.

As part of the follow-up analysis of the comments received, the DG Internal Market and Services of the European Commission asked the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) to provide assistance in collecting evidence useful for assessing the administrative costs associated with implementing the two options suggested:

• general country-by-country reporting by multinational companies with a full set of accounts including intra-group transactions, which are eliminated on consolidation, or
• specific country-by-country reporting by companies, which are active in an extractive industry in third countries, including payments made by the extractive industry to governments in third countries and other extractive industry-specific information.

The report includes the following overall findings:

The full report can be accessed via the EFRAG press release (link to EFRAG website).

Click for our October 2010 article on the European Commission public consultation on country-by-country reporting

The Committee discussed:

• Development of a DPOC protocol
• Post implementation review planning
• Agenda consultation
• Meeting with the representatives of the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF)
• Effect analysis
• Due process oversight of standards
• Review of the effectiveness of the IFRS Foundation Interpretations Committee
• Emerging Economies Group

Please click here to read the notes on the IFRS Foundation's website.