Agenda consultation

The IVSC Standards Board Agenda Consultation seeks to garner constituent views on the agenda priorities of the IVSC for the three year period commencing January 2015. The IVSC expects to give highest priority to projects that are consistent with the objectives of the IVS, which are focused on building confidence and trust in valuation assignments, narrowing differences in valuation and promoting convergence through increased use and adoption of IVS. Projects will be evaluated against established project criteria when determining whether to be added to the agenda.

The agenda consultation outlines a number of existing projects that are expected to continue into 2015, and requests information about the extent to which difficulties are encountered as a result of a lack of a globally recognised valuation standard on those topics:

• Extractive industries (mining and quarrying and extraction of energy resources such as oil and gas)
• Forestry (valuation of forests or woodland used primary for timber production under IAS 41 Agriculture)
• Trade related/going concern property (specialised buildings such as hotels and other structures designed for a specific business activity)
• Specialised public sector assets (assets for which there are seldom active markets, typically held by public sector entities for public service purposes)
• Derivatives (equity derivatives, fixed income, with later consideration of credit, foreign exchange and commodity derivatives)
• Funding valuation adjustments (reflecting the cost of funding an uncollaterised instrument or position)
• Valuation for resolution and recovery (when entities are in financial difficulty).

In addition, the consultation paper encourages suggestions for other projects to be added to the IVSC agenda.

IVS structure and scope

A separate consultation paper, Structure and Scope of the International Valuation Standards, seeks constituent feedback on how the IVSC can ensure that IVS are presented in the clearest possible manner, and what changes might be required to the structure of IVS to improve their clarity.

Issues discussed in the consultation paper include:

• Should the word "standard" be reserved solely for rules that are intended to be mandatory?
• Different views as to what is meant by "mandatory" in the context of standards
• An apparent lack of clarity as to what constitutes a 'Technical Information Paper' (TIP) and its relationship with the other parts of the standards
• Whether the IVSC should issues commentaries, guidance and information to support the concepts, principles and requirements in IVS.

The consultation paper also compares and contrasts four sets of international standards used in financial markets, namely International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Engagement Standards issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB), the International Standards of Actuarial Practice (ISAPs) and the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS). The consultation paper seeks feedback on aspects of the way these standards are presented that the IVSC should consider in improving the presentation and clarity of IVS.

Both consultation documents are open for comment until 10 October 2014. Click for (links to IVSC website):

• IVSC Standards Board Agenda Consultation
• Structure and Scope of the International Valuation Standards – Consultation Paper.