The topics to be covered include:

• The updated timeline for the issuance of new accounting standards
• The recent tentative decisions on the major convergence projects
• The new standard on Fair Value Measurements and revised standards on Post-employment Benefits and Presentation of Items of Other Comprehensive Income, with key insights for an effective transition.

Full details of the webcast are provided below:

Topic:	IFRS: Important Developments
Date and time:	Wednesday, 27 July 2011 9:00-10:00am London time (GMT +1), which is 4:00-5:00pm Hong Kong Time (GMT +8)
Host:	Joel Osnoss, Global Managing Director – IFRS Clients and Markets
Presenters:	Randall Sogoloff, Leader – Global IFRS Communications Kush Patel, Director
More information:	Click Here
Registration:	Click Here

Access to recordings and other materials from past webcasts is available on our IFRS Webcasts page.

The comment letter highlights Deloitte's views on the issues relating to governance of the Trustees' review and the Monitoring Board's concurrent and independent review of the IFRS Foundation's governance. The following is an excerpt from the letter:

 

It is important that the governance structure fosters high quality by achieving a proper balance between accountability, effective oversight and legitimacy of the IASB on one hand and its technical independence on the other. In our letter of 25 March 2011 to the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board, we expressed support for the three tiers of governance, under which: the Monitoring Board provides political legitimacy and accountability by acting as the link, via competent market authorities and/ or regulators, to national governments in jurisdictions using or committed to using IFRSs and provides oversight of and pro-active advice to the IFRS Foundation; the IFRS Foundation Trustees oversee the day-to-day activities of the IASB and related standard-setting activities and promote the transparency of the organisation; and the IASB acts as an independent standard-setter, operating within a clearly defined and documented system of due process.

In addition, we encourage the Trustees' to leverage experts in financial reporting from around the world throughout the standard-setting process. We, also, think the Trustees' should consider which issues might be dealt with by the enhanced governance structure proposed in the Report.

Click to Download our Comment Letter on Status of Trustees' Strategy Review (PDF 119k). All of our past comment letters are here.

The decision was made during the July IASB meeting.

We have posted Deloitte observer notes from some of the sessions held on Thursday and Friday (click through for direct access to the notes):

Thursday, 21 July 2011 (earlier sessions)

• Leases(IASB-FASB)
  • Statement of Cash Flows
  • Statement of Financial Position
  • Disclosures
• ICAS/NZICA Disclosure report (IASB-FASB)
• Effective Dates(IASB-FASB)
  • Leasing project
  • Effective dates and transition methods
  • Revenue recognition project

Friday, 22 July 2011

• IFRS Interpretations Committee update (IASB only)
• Financial Instruments – Effective date of IFRS 9 (IASB only)
• Asset and Liability Offsetting (IASB only)
• Financial Instruments — Hedge Accounting(IASB only)
  • Groups and Net Positions

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

The purpose of the paper is to confirm the view of the ASB and APB that the true and fair requirement remains of fundamental importance in both UK GAAP and IFRS.

The paper discusses the need for professional judgement, the role of 'prudence' under UK GAAP, reflecting 'substance over form', how the true and fair concept is represented in accounting standards, and the approach to be taken by auditors.

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

We have posted Deloitte observer notes from the IASB only sessions held on Wednesday (click through for direct access to the notes):

Wednesday, 20 July 2011

• Financial Instruments – Hedge Accounting (IASB only)
  • Forward points
  • Aggregated exposures
• Future agenda consultation report (IASB only)

Notes from the IASB-FASB sessions on financial asset impairment and leases held on Wednesday will be posted soon.

Agenda changes. A number of changes have also been made to the agenda for the meeting. Impairment will no longer be discussed on Thursday and asset and liability offsetting will be added to Thursday's discussions. The agenda for Friday 22 July also remains subject to change.

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

In a press release announcing the decision, the IASB and FASB noted that even through the boards have not completed all of their deliberations, the decisions taken to date were sufficiently different from those published in the exposure draftto warrant re-exposure of the revised proposals. Re-exposure is designed to provide interested parties with an opportunity to comment on revisions the boards have undertaken since the publication of the original proposals in August 2010.

In an updated work plan dated 30 June 2011, the IASB has previously indicated that the next step in the leases project would either be a review draft of the final IFRS, or re-exposure of the proposals. Given the boards had previously decided to re-expose the revenue recognition proposals, re-exposure of the leasing proposals is perhaps not unexpected.

The boards intend to complete their deliberations, including consideration of the comment period, during the third quarter of 2011 with a view to publishing a revised exposure draft shortly afterwards.

Click for IASB press release (link to IASB website). We maintain a history of the leases project Here.

We have posted Deloitte observer notes from some of the sessions held on Wednesday and Thursday (click through for direct access to the notes):

Wednesday, 20 July 2011 (earlier sessions)

• Leases (IASB-FASB)
  • Lessor accounting - lessor accounting model, profit recognition under a 'receivable and residual' approach
  • Accounting for variable lease payments
  • Embedded derivatives
• Financial Instruments – Impairment (IASB-FASB)
  • Transfers between impairment 'buckets'
  • 'Bucket One' measurement

Thursday, 21 July 2011

• Insurance Contracts (IASB-FASB)
  • Short term insurance contracts
• Asset and liability offsetting (IASB-FASB)
  • Disclosure - Scope
  • Disclosure - Presentation

Notes from the IASB-FASB additional sessions held on Thursday will be posted soon.

Agenda changes. Further changes have been made to the agenda, as follows: the joint discussion on asset and liability offsetting on Friday has been cancelled, the discussion on effective dates was brought forward to Thursday, and the order of the IASB-only sessions on Friday has been revised.

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

Meeting time is 13:30 to 18:15 (London time).

 

The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR), the predecessor of ESMA, issued a statement in April 2007 discussing the issue of whether or not rejection notes published by the Committee itself or the explanatory text included in such a rejection note, should result in an accounting change and, if so, whether the change should be regarded as the correction of an error or a change in accounting policy in accordance with IAS 8 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors.

The CESR statement indicated such rejection statements should not lead to a retrospective adjustment in accordance with IAS 8, noting it had been argued by some that the conflicts of views on how IFRSs should be applied were transitional issues and would disappear over time as all stakeholders become more familiar with the interpretation and application of IFRS.

ESMA's statement issued today changes this view, noting the following:

"ESMA believes that, 6 years after the implementation of IFRS, we are no longer in such a transitional period. Rejection notes published by the IFRS Interpretations Committee often provide clarification of the standards. There is an expectation on the part of the stakeholders in IFRS that rejection notes concluding that IFRSs are sufficiently clear will be carefully considered by preparers in determining their accounting policies. In the case of a change in a previous accounting treatment following the issue of a rejection note, an issuer should apply IAS 8 and provide proper and sufficient disclosure on the reasons for the change, having regard to the particular facts and circumstances of the individual case, including reference to the rejection note."

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