Click for:

• Access to the podcast (link to IASB website)
• Our Insurance Contracts project page

The report, sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, presents the results of an international survey undertaken by the Climate Change Working Group (CCWG) of the UNEP FI and the SBI. More than 60 institutions, from both developed and developing countries, took part in the survey.

The report concludes the availability of and access to climate change information remains insufficient. It notes the increasing financial relevance of climate change and highlights the fact that insurers and lenders need better information regarding the physical and economic impacts of the world's changing weather patterns.

The survey identified that information gaps can be closed by continued research towards more reliable climate modelling and forecasting, as well as enhanced translation of scientific knowledge and existing information into user-friendly information.

Click for press release (link to United Nations Environment Programme website).

Click for our earlier story on Request for views: Effective date and transition methods.

• A discussion paper, The Evolving Nature of Financial Reporting: Disclosure and Its Audit Implications, which highlights recent trends in the range, volume, and complexity of financial statement disclosures, and explores issues and practical challenges in preparing, auditing, and using them. The Discussion Paper has been prepared using the disclosures required by IFRSs as a frame of reference. Comments on the discussion paper close on 1 June 2011
• A publication, Audit Quality: An IAASB Perspective, designed to stimulate further debate on audit quality and further the IAASB's efforts to facilitate robust audits in the public interest.

Click for IAASB press release (link to IFAC website).

Additional joint meetings remain tentatively scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, 1 and 2 February 2011. The next confirmed meeting is the regular IASB meeting to be held 14-18 February 2011.

The GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework is designed to enable large and small companies, non-profit organisations and government bodies worldwide to assess their sustainability performance and disclose the results. The Arabic Guidelines will enable organisations in the Middle East to be more transparent about their sustainability performance, supporting GRI's goal to "mainstream" sustainability reporting worldwide.

Also, GRI's Focal Point USA will be officially launched at the New York Stock Exchange on Monday 31 January 2011. The Focal Point USA began operations in October 2010 and aims to address the needs of the unique marketplace in the USA and to boost the quality and quantity of sustainability reports coming from US organizations. The rapidly upward trend in sustainability reporting globally, and particularly in Europe, has not been mirrored in the USA yet.

Click for GRI press releases (links to GRI website):

• GRI press release on new Arabic Guidelines
• GRI press release on new Focal Point USA

Global publications

• Updated IASB Project Insights:
• Leases (PDF 94k)
• Post-employment benefits (PDF 75k)
• Revenue recognition (PDF 73k)

• Comment letter: IFRS Foundation Trustees' questionnaire IFRS Interpretations Committee Review (PDF 109k)

Deloitte (United States)

• Heads Up Snow Day for TDRs - FASB Finalizes ASU Delaying Effective Date of Disclosures About TDRs by Creditors (PDF 89k) - discussing FASB's issue of ASU 2011-01 (link to FASB website), which temporarily defers the effective date in ASU 2010-202 for disclosures about troubled debt restructurings (TDRs) by creditors until the Board finalizes its project on determining what constitutes a TDR for a creditor

Deloitte (Canada)

• L'IASB publie des modifications de l'IFRS 1 relativement à la première application des IFRS après une période d'hyperinflation grave (PDF 55k) – a French translation of IFRS in Focus: IASB issues amendments to IFRS 1 on first-time adoption of IFRSs after period of severe hyperinflation
• Publication par l'IASB de modifications apportées à IAS 12 (PDF 58k) – a French translation of IFRS in Focus: IASB issues amendments to IAS 12
• Le point sur les IFRS – Édition Décembre 2010 (PDF 97k) – a French translation of the December 2010 edition of IFRS on Point

Deloitte (Japan)

• A Japanese translation of IFRIC Review: IFRS Interpretations Committee Meeting held on 6-7 January 2011 (PDF 229k)

• IFRS 9 Financial Instruments
• Amendments to IFRS 7 Financial Instruments: Disclosures
• Improvements to IFRSs
• Amendments to IAS 12 Deferred tax: Recovery of Underlying Assets
• Amendments to IFRS 1 Severe Hyperinflation and Removal of Fixed Dates for First-Time Adopters

You can always find the endorsement status report Here.

Thursday, 20 January 2011

• Leases (IASB/FASB)
• Education session on the way forward for lessor accounting model(s)
• Joint Arrangements
• Annual Improvements to IFRSs
• Amendments to Due Process Handbook
• Amendments to IAS 1 to reflect the Conceptual Framework
• Consolidation and Investments in Associates
• IFRS Interpretations Committee update

Friday, 21 January 2011

• Post-employment Benefits
• Presentation of components of defined benefit cost
• Interaction of IAS 19 Proposals and IAS 37

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