On the public part of the agenda (31 March) were reports by the different bodies of the organisation (report of the Due Process Oversight Committee, report of the IASB Chairman, report of the IFRS Advisory Council Chair, report of the Executive Committee on the status of the Strategy Review, and report of the Education and Content Services Committee). Please click here for the agenda papers handed out and a webcast of the meeting (link to IASB website).

Tomorrow, on 1 April, the IFRS Foundation Trustees will meet with the Monitoring Board. On the agenda are the following topics:

• Governance review – status update by the Monitoring Board Working Group
• Strategy review – status update by the Trustees
• Trustees Chair search / Trustees nominations and appointments
• IASB-FASB progress report on convergence
• Budget and financing strategy

Please click here for agenda papers and registration as an observer or for the webcast of the meeting (link to IASB website).

The objective of the events is:

• to familiarise European constituents with the tentative decisions that the IASB has made in the re-deliberation phase of these projects;
• to find out whether those tentative decisions are solving major concerns expressed by the European constituents during the consultation phase; and
• to identify whether changes made, compared to the proposals in the Exposure Drafts, give rise to any new major concerns.

An overview of the tentative dates and places is given below. Further information is available on EFRAG's website.

European Outreach on the IASB's main projects – tentative dates and places
Copenhagen: Tuesday 3 May 2011 (confirmed) Helsinki: Monday 9 May 2011 (confirmed) Frankfurt: Monday 9 May 2011 (to be confirmed) London: Tuesday 10 May 2011 (to be confirmed) Amsterdam: Tuesday 10 May 2011 (confirmed) Rome: date to be confirmed

Click for:

• Our revenue project page.
• Our leases project page.
• Our insurance contracts page.
• Our financial instruments page.

Although it mainly calls for the re-establishing of confidential dialogue between bank auditors and supervisors it also contains some observations on the role which IFRS should play. Chapter 5 of the report is dealing with the impact of IFRS on the banking sector. Here is an extract:

Click Here (link to UK Parliament website) for the full report.

Starr told a conference that 'there is still concern about the adequacy of IFRS taxonomy'. Hoogervorst said that further proposals in April would extend the scope of the taxonomy. "I am hopeful we can address the problems the SEC is seeing and hopefully the use of IFRS taxonomy can be allowed. A lot of these problems will be solved", he said.

The supplement on impairment proposes to replace the incurred loss impairment models in IAS 39 and US GAAP with an expected loss impairment model including separate approaches to recognising expected losses for performing assets in a "good book" and for troubled assets in a "bad book".

The report on the IFRS Foundation's governance seeks public comment on a series of proposals and alternatives under consideration to improve the governance structure supporting International Financial Reporting Standards.

Click for our earlier stories on the supplement to exposure draft on impairment and the report on governance review for public consultation.

Observer papers for the meeting have also been made available on the IASB website.

The IASB and FASB have also tentatively announced an additional joint meeting to be held on 5-6 April 2011. Confirmation of this additional meeting and the agenda will be announced closer to the tentative meeting date.

The revised summary of the agenda for the 29 March meeting can be found here.

We've posted Deloitte observer notes from the meeting (click through for direct access to the notes for each topic):

Tuesday, 29 March 2011

• Financial Statement Presentation – Discontinued Operations (IASB only)
• Publication of the Exposure Draft
• Financial Instruments – Impairment (IASB-FASB)
• Purchased debt instruments
• Insurance Contracts (IASB-FASB)
• Unlocking the margin

The IASB and FASB have tentatively scheduled an additional joint meeting on 5-6 April 2011. The next regular IASB meeting is scheduled for 11-15 April 2011.

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

Whilst many of the views expressed in the compilation are the personal views of the authors of each section, the report provides a summary of the overall 'key messages', including many regarding corporate governance in financial institutions and more generally, and shareholder rights. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), its governance and international convergence are also mentioned, including the need for global standards of financial reporting requirements.

The messages directly relevant to financial reporting are reproduced below:

There has been a recent international convergence in thinking about corporate governance problems and remedies, which to a large extent has been driven by multilateral financial reform efforts, such as those of the G20. International standard setting bodies can promote convergence by designing principles-based guidance that is globally applicable but can be implemented in particular national and regional contexts.

Several national corporate governance reform efforts are, for the first time, using the language of 'sustainability' and 'stakeholder governance'. There is a need to transform the concept of 'sustainability' into more concrete measures of corporate performance and embed sustainability into a new model of 'stakeholder governance'.

The report can accessed on the UNCTAD website (publication ID UNCTAD/DIAE/ED/2010/2).

This publication provides a closer look at the IASB's projects to amend the accounting for financial instruments and other projects likely to have significant implications for financial instrument accounting.

Click for Putting the pieces together: An update on the IASB's projects to improve the accounting for financial instruments and other related projects (PDF 182k).

The speech was given on 17 March 2011 to the first International Conference of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), which examined the developments and challenges of delivering good public financial management and how transparency in reporting restores the confidence of stakeholders.

In his speech, Mr Ball indicated that a crucial element of transparency in the public sector is accrual accounting, including a possible role for International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs).

An extract from the speech is reproduced below:

The full speech can accessed on the IFAC website.