ESMA comment letter on the IASB's Exposure Draft amending the effective date of IFRS 15
29 Jun, 2015
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its comment letter on the IASB exposure draft (ED) proposing deferral of the effective date of IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers by one year.
The IASB issued ED/2015/2 Effective Date of IFRS 15 (proposed amendments to IFRS 15) on 19 May 2015. This exposure draft only proposes changing the mandatory effective date of IFRS 15 from annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2017 to annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2018. Earlier application of IFRS 15 would continue to be permitted.
In its comment letter, ESMA supports the proposal on the basis of the factors considered by the IASB in the ED such as the importance and persuasiveness of revenue in the financial statements, the ability that issuers can apply the amendments at the time of first application of IFRS 15 and the desire to maintain convergence with the equivalent US standard.
ESMA is also of the view that the deferral of the mandatory effective date will allow sufficient time for high-quality implementation of IFRS 15.
The full comment letter is available on the ESMA website.
