February

Further notes from the main February IASB meeting

18 Feb, 2011

The IASB is holding its regular monthly meeting in London on 15-18 February 2011, some of which is a joint meeting with the FASB.

We've posted Deloitte observer notes from the additional revenue recognition session held on the second day of the meeting and some notes from the third day of the meeting (click through for direct access to the notes):

Wednesday, 16 February 2011 (IASB-FASB)

Thursday, 17 February 2011 (IASB-FASB)

  • Leases
    • Distinguishing between leases and services
  • Financial Instruments: Impairment
    • Definition of the term 'write-off'
  • Revenue Recognition
    • Identification of separate performance obligations
    • Existence of a contract and definition of a performance obligation
    • Breakage and prepayments (notes to be posted soon)
    • Onerous performance obligations (notes to be posted soon)
  • Cross-cutting Issues
    • Taking uncertainty into account in the measurement of an asset or liability

Notes from the Thursday revenue recognition sessions on breakage and onerous contracts and the afternoon sessions on leases and insurance contracts will be posted soon.

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

Final notes from the main February IASB meeting

18 Feb, 2011

The IASB is holding its regular monthly meeting in London on 15-18 February 2011, some of which is a joint meeting with the FASB.

We've posted Deloitte observer notes from the additional revenue recognition, leases and insurance contracts sessions held on the third day of the meeting and the notes from the fourth day of the meeting (click through for direct access to the notes):

Thursday, 17 February 2011 (IASB-FASB)

  • Revenue Recognition
    • Breakage and prepayments
    • Onerous performance obligations
  • Leases
    • Accounting for variable lease payments
    • Other variable lease payment consideration
  • Insurance Contracts
    • Project assumptions
    • Discount rate for non-participating contracts

Friday, 18 February 2011 (IASB-FASB)

  • Insurance Contracts
    • Discount rate for non-participating contracts
    • Cash flows
    • Explicit risk adjustment
    • Day one gains and losses
    • Margins
    • Refresher on presentation models
    • Discounting non-life contract liabilities and Locking the discount rate

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

Notes from Day 2 of the main February IASB meeting

17 Feb, 2011

The IASB is holding its regular monthly meeting in London on 15-18 February 2011, some of which is a joint meeting with the FASB.

We've posted Deloitte observer notes from the second day of the meeting (click through for direct access to the notes):

Wednesday, 16 February 2011 (IASB-FASB)

  • Revenue Recognition
    • Identifying separate performance obligations
    • Revenue recognition for services
  • Insurance Contracts
    • Education session on 'unbundling'
  • Leases
    • Initial measurement of options to extend or terminate a lease
    • Reassessment requirements associated with options to extend or terminate a lease
    • Symmetry between lessee and lessor accounting

Notes from the additional session on revenue recognition held later in the day will be posted soon.

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

Meeting of the IFRS Advisory Council

17 Feb, 2011

On 21 and 22 February 2011, the IFRS Advisory Council will meet.

The following topics will be discussed:
  • Meeting with the Trustees
  • IASB Activities – Update on the more challenging issues within the four major projects focussed on by the IASB at the moment
  • The IASB's post-implementation reviews
  • Advisory Council performance review
  • Effective dates and transition
  • IASB post-2011 agenda
  • Monitoring Board performance review

Please go to the IASB's website for further information, access to the agenda papers and registration as an observer.

Meeting of IASB representatives with the Analyst Representative Group

17 Feb, 2011

On 23 February 2011, IASB representatives will meet with the Analyst Representative Group (ARG).

So far, agenda papers for the discussion of the following topics have been made available:
  • The IASB's post-implementation reviews
  • Impairment of financial assets
  • Offsetting financial assets and financial liabilities
  • Lease accounting
  • Hedge accounting

Please go to the IASB's website for further information, access to the agenda papers and registration as an observer.

Upcoming Dbriefs webcasts

16 Feb, 2011

Two new Dbriefs webcasts on financial reporting topics are scheduled during March.

Details are below.

Topic: Accounting for Financial Instruments: Recent Developments and the Latest Proposals From the FASB and IASB

Date and time: Tuesday, 29 March 2011, 2:00pm - 3:30pm (US Eastern)

More information on the webcast and registration: click here

Topic: Quarterly Accounting Roundup: An Update of Important Developments

Date and time: Thursday, 31 March 2011, 2:00pm - 3:30pm (US Eastern)

More information on the webcast and registration: click here

 

Notes from Day 1 of the main February IASB meeting

16 Feb, 2011

The IASB is holding its regular monthly meeting in London on 15-18 February 2011, some of which is a joint meeting with the FASB.

We've posted Deloitte observer notes from the first day of the meeting, which was an IASB-only meeting (click through for direct access to the notes):

Tuesday, 15 February 2011 (IASB only)

  • Consolidation and Joint Arrangements
    • Effective date and early application of forthcoming IFRS 10, IFRS 11, IFRS 12, IAS 27 (revised 2011) and IAS 28 (revised 2011)
  • Post-employment Benefits
    • Presentation of remeasurements
    • Feedback on tentative decisions to date
    • Project status
    • Effective date of any amendments and transitional requirements
  • Financial Instruments: Impairment
    • Disclosures — Write-off policy
    • Disclosures — Stress testing
    • Disclosures — Credit quality of financial assets
    • Disclosures — Vintage information

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

IVSC issues exposure draft on depreciated replacement cost

16 Feb, 2011

The International Valuation Professional Board, an independent technical body of the International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC), has released for comment an exposure draft of Technical Information Paper 2 'Depreciated Replacement Cost'.

Technical Information Papers (TIPs) are designed to provide technical guidance for valuation professionals on generally accepted best practice, but do not provide valuation training or instruction.

The objective of the exposure draft is to provide guidance on the application of the 'Depreciated Replacement Cost' (DRC) method of valuation, the most common valuation method under the cost approach. The cost approach estimates value using the economic principle that a buyer will pay no more for an asset than the cost to obtain an asset of equal utility, whether by purchase or by construction. It can be applied to a wide range of asset types and is frequently used when there is either very limited or no evidence of sales transactions (such as the valuation of specialised assets arising in business combinations).

The exposure draft:

  • is proposed to replace the current IVSC Guidance Note GN8 "The Cost Approach for Financial Reporting - (DRC)", but extend the guidance on DRC to a wider variety of circumstances
  • identifies depreciated replacement cost as the most common method of valuation under the cost approach, but asks whether DRC is the only method of applying the cost approach
  • proposes to replace 'external obsolescence' with 'economic obsolescence' as one of the three main types of deduction for obsolescence when applying the DRC approach (the others being physical deterioration and functional obsolescence).

Comments on the exposure draft close on 31 May 2011. Click for IVSC press release (link to IVSC website).

IFRS Foundation Education Initiative publishes briefing for chief executives

16 Feb, 2011

The IFRS Foundation Education Initiative has published the 2011 edition of International Financial Reporting Standards – A Briefing for Chief Executives, Audit Committees and Boards of Directors to the eIFRS site.

These briefing notes provide summaries of all IFRSs issued at 1 January 2011 at a high level and in non-technical language. It's specially prepared for chief executives, members of audit committees, company directors and others who want a broad overview of IFRSs and of the business implications of implementing them. The electronic PDF is available in the eIFRS Online Subscriber Areaof the IASB's website for access by both Comprehensive and eIFRS subscribers.

 

EFRAG Outreach on Financial Statement Presentation – feedback report

16 Feb, 2011

Between September and December 2010, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) and the European National Standard Setters jointly organised meetings in ten European cities to assist the IASB in gathering the views of European constituents on the tentative decisions included in the IASB staff draft of the Exposure Draft Financial Statement Presentation.

Overall, 484 constituents participated in these meetings. European constituents were also invited to provide their feedback on the Draft ED using an online questionnaire. Overall, 133 constituents completed the questionnaire, including 24 constituents who did not participate in the meetings.

EFRAG has now issued a feedback report summarising the views expressed by European constituents. Some of the results were the following (quotes from the report's executive summary):

"The European constituents in all locations consistently questioned whether a new presentation model was really needed, especially considering the costs involved. [...] The European constituents in several locations mentioned that their preliminary assessment of costs to implement certain aspects of the proposals and the costs to maintain the new presentation model would be comparable to the effort associated with the initial adoption of IFRSs in Europe."

"European constituents in all locations consistently expressed a very strong view that, prior to proceeding with the presentation matters, the IASB should address the fundamental issues related to performance reporting, namely, what constitutes performance and what is the impact of the business model on it; where and how should the line be drawn between profit and other comprehensive income (OCI), and whether reclassification of OCI items (recycling) is needed."

"The European constituents were generally split in views as to whether or not the IASB should develop one generic presentation model for all industries or consider developing industry-specific models."

"The European constituents generally believed that the proposals in the Draft ED would result in too much detail on the face of primary statements. This would obscure key messages and would complicate rather than improve the communication between an entity and its stakeholders."

"The majority of European constituents participating in the outreach meetings were against mandating the direct method for presenting operating cash flows."

Please click for EFRAG press release (link to EFRAG website) and the full report (PDF 732k).

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