The UK Accounting Standards Board (ASB) has published a Financial Reporting Exposure Draft, FRED 45, which sets out proposals to be included in a Financial Reporting Standard for Public Benefit Entities (FRSPBE) to accompany the proposed Financial Reporting Standard for Medium-size Entities (FRSME).

The standard addresses concerns that IFRS do not address some transactions that are specific to the public benefit entity sector. It is proposed that the FRSPBE will be mandatory for entities which meet the definition of public benefit entity that apply the proposed FRSME.

Issues which have been addressed include:

• Concessionary loans;
• Property held for the provision of social benefits;
• Entity combinations;
• Impairment of assets;
• Funding commitments; and
• Incoming resources from non-exchange transactions (donations etc).

The consultation period will run until 31 July 2011. It is proposed that the new Standard will be effective at the same time as the FRSME which is currently proposed for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 July 2013.

The consultation period for the draft FRSME ends on 30 April 2011. The ASB will be considering the responses it receives to the draft in May 2011 and will post on its website its tentative decisions as this redeliberation work progresses.

Click for:

• FRED 45: Financial Reporting Standard for Public Benefit Entities (FRSPBE) (link to ASB website)
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