March

IASB work plan reveals revised timetable for final standards

28 Mar, 2011

The latest IASB work plan timetable, as of 28 March, has been released and shows revised 'current best estimates' for its progress.

It shows that the IASB expects to ballot on its four big projects (financial instruments, leases, revenue recognition and insurance contracts) before the end of June this year. This means that the standards likely will be published early in the second half of the year. No effective date is indicated in the work plan, but it is unlikely to be before 1 January 2013, with 1 January 2015 thought more likely.

Finalised standards in a number of other projects are now due to be issued in April: financial statement presentation (other comprehensive income), consolidation, joint ventures and post-employment benefits. In addition, new exposure drafts are expected before the end of June on investment companies and annual improvements, together with consultation on the IASB's agenda going forward.

Click for IASB work plan as of 28 March (link to IASB website).

Agenda for March additional joint IASB-FASB meeting on 29 March 2011

28 Mar, 2011

The IASB and FASB are holding an additional joint meeting in London on 29 March 2011.

You can access the agenda on our 29 March 2011 joint meeting page.  We will also post Deloitte observer notes on this page as they are available.

UK feedback statement on auditor scepticism

25 Mar, 2011

The UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published a feedback statement summarising the responses to its August 2010 Discussion Paper Auditor Scepticism: Raising the Bar.

While primarily focused on the auditing issues, the paper include observations on the interaction of the judgement required in applying IFRSs and audit scepticism. An extract:

Several of the responses from the profession noted that there was a possibility that regulators could confuse the proper application of IFRS, which contemplates a range of potential outcomes, with a lack of scepticism on the part of the auditor. In particular some drew attention to the requirement that impairment losses for financial assets need a neutral assessment of loss events incurred at the balance sheet date and not losses that are expected to occur in the future. Other responses observed that it was not unusual for auditors and management to have different views on estimates but suggested that, where both fell within a reasonable range, it was inappropriate for the auditor to try to replace management's view of what a reasonable estimate was with their own.

The feedback statement (together with the original Discussion Paper) can be accessed on the FRC's website.

IOSCO Executive Committee Chairman discusses post-crisis regulation

25 Mar, 2011

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has released a transcript of a speech given by Jane Diplock, Chairman IOSCO Executive Committee, on "Enhancing Financial Policy and Regulatory Cooperation - Responses to the Global Financial Crisis".

The speech was delivered at an APEC Regional Symposium held in Melbourne on 8-9 March 2011 to focus on regulation in its regional and global context, promoting regulatory reforms across financial market sectors and international borders.

In the speech, Ms Diplock discusses the lessons of the global financial crisis, including the need to recognise systematic risk in an environment where "global markets are vitally interconnected" and "governance and sustainability matter". Ms Diplock goes on to explore the concept of a 'network model' of global financial markets and how this model might be used as the basis for regulation going forward, requiring the global application of regulation, including accounting, auditing and sustainability.

An extract of the speech follows:

Applying the network model to finance refocuses our attention from static institutions to constantly interacting market dynamics; to the links between commodities markets, energy markets, carbon markets and the broader financial markets.

The network model highlights the basic fact that good systemic health is vital to us all, and that we cannot afford to let it take second place to individual, short-term desires. This is why that sustainability is now as crucial an aspect of good governance in the financial field as it is in the environmental.

Narrowly focused, individual profit-seeking must not allowed to threaten the system itself. This is not mere virtue; it is necessity. Without the system that supports them, individuals cannot survive.

The new network model suggests that anything and everything related to markets and their governance, regulation, financial reporting, accounting and auditing must be globally oriented.

Click for the full text of the speech (link to IOSCO website). A background paper presented at the Symposium, Regulatory Reform Post the Global Financial Crisis: An Overview, is available on The Australian APEC Study Centre website.

IFRS XBRL taxonomy for 2011 is available

25 Mar, 2011

The IFRS Foundation has published the IFRS Taxonomy 2011. The IFRS Taxonomy is a translation of IFRSs (International Financial Reporting Standards) into XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language).

The 2011 taxonomy is consistent with IFRSs as issued by the IASB at 1 January 2011, and it contains XBRL tags for all IFRS disclosure requirements.

Click Here to access the IFRS Taxonomy files and accompanying materials on the IFRS Foundation's website.

GRI updates its Sustainability Reporting Guidelines

25 Mar, 2011

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has released its G3.1 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines ("G3.1").

The Guidelines are an essential part of GRI's Reporting Framework which provides guidance on how organisations can disclose their sustainability performance.

G3.1 is an update and completion of the third generation of GRI's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and includes expanded guidance for reporting on human rights, local community impacts, and gender.

In conjunction with the new reporting guidelines, GRI has also released guidance to help companies determine what to measure and report on, called The Technical Protocol — Applying the Report Content Principles, designed to enable organisations to produce relevant reports more easily.

More companies are choosing to produce the GRI guidelines in producing a sustainability report. For instance, 17 out of 18 members of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), which includes many of the world's biggest resources companies, disclosed social and environmental data in line with GRI standards in 2010.

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Deloitte issues comment letter on the review of the IFRS Foundation's governance

25 Mar, 2011

Deloitte's IFRS Global Office has submitted a letter of comment on the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board's Consultative Report on the Review of the IFRS Foundation's Governance.

The comment letter expresses Deloitte's views about the issues that are fundamental to the review of the IFRS Foundation's governance. The following is an excerpt from the letter:

The governance structure of the IFRS Foundation must facilitate achieving the ultimate goal of a single set of high-quality global financial reporting standards. The governance structure should provide for the independence of the standard-setter while ensuring the accountability of the IFRS Foundation to capital market authorities and ultimately governments.

The primary focus of setting financial reporting standards is the needs of participants in the capital markets and it is appropriate for the Monitoring Board to comprise capital market authorities responsible for the enforcement or endorsement of financial reporting standards for capital markets. So that it is able to meet this objective in a better manner, we support expanding the Monitoring Board to represent a more diverse population of capital market authorities from jurisdictions using or committed to using IFRSs. We think that IOSCO, which represents capital market authorities worldwide and is recognised as the G20's capital markets representative agency, is the appropriate agency to advise on membership of the Monitoring Board.

Click to Download our Comment Letter (PDF 106k). All of our past comment letters are here.

CIMA and AICPA form joint venture on international management accounting

25 Mar, 2011

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), headquartered in London, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), headquartered in New York, are launching a joint venture designed to give management accountancy a higher profile in the United States and promote its development across the world.

The step, which requires ratification from the institutes' respective governing bodies, would combine the resources of the AICPA in North America with CIMA's presence in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and elsewhere.

CIMA and AICPA would create a new not-for-profit joint venture to be called the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. The joint venture would promote a new professional accounting designation which would recognise professionals around the world in management accounting, enterprise and performance strategy. The joint venture would also promote the US Certified Public Accountant (CPA) qualification as a worldwide standard of professional excellence in public accounting.

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

Final notes from IASB-FASB meeting in Norwalk

24 Mar, 2011

The IASB and FASB held a joint meeting in Norwalk on 21-23 March 2011. We've posted the remaining Deloitte observer notes from the meeting (click through for direct access to the notes):

Monday, 21 March 2011 (other sessions)

  • Leases
    • Initial direct costs
    • Inception vs. commencement
    • Determination of the discount rate in a lease

Tuesday, 22 March 2011 (other sessions)

Wednesday, 23 March 2011

The IASB and FASB are holding an additional joint meeting on Tuesday 29 March 2011 (this meeting was originally scheduled for 28-29 March 2011).

Our earlier story about the outcomes from this week's meeting is available Here. Click here to go to the preliminary and unofficial Notes Taken by Deloitte Observers for the entire meeting (including the IASB meeting from the previous week).

Notes from IASB-FASB meeting in Norwalk

23 Mar, 2011

The IASB and FASB are holding a joint meeting in Norwalk on 21-23 March 2011, continuing discussions held between the two boards as part of the regular IASB meeting held in London on 14-17 March.

We've posted Deloitte observer notes from some of the sessions held on the first and second days of this week's meeting (click through for direct access to the notes):

Monday, 21 March 2011 (IASB-FASB)

  • Revenue Recognition
    • Collectibility
    • Time value of money
  • Cross-cutting Issues
    • Disclosure issues in the revenue recognition, leases, and insurance contracts projects
  • Insurance Contracts
    • Unbundling: Overall considerations
    • Bifurcation of embedded derivatives
    • Objective for an explicit risk adjustment
    • Discounting for ultra long duration cash flows

Tuesday, 22 March 2011 (IASB-FASB)

  • Insurance Contracts
    • Explicit risk adjustment (education session)
    • Contract boundary
  • Leases
    • Contracts that contain a lease
    • Sale and leaseback transactions

The notes from the session on Leases held on Monday 21 March and Financial instruments impairment held on Tuesday 22 March will be posted soon. Also note the agenda for the meeting has been changed from that originally scheduled and a number of topics have been moved between days or removed from the agenda.

Click here to go to the preliminary and unofficial Notes Taken by Deloitte Observers for the entire meeting (including the IASB meeting from the previous week).

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