Hans Hoogervorst discusses IASB developments

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10 Dec, 2015

During the annual American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments in Washington, D.C., IASB Chairman Hans Hoogervorst spoke about the IFRS developments during 2015 and what to expect in the upcoming year.

Mr Hooger­vorst discussed im­prove­ments made to IFRS over the past year which included the use of the joint Tran­si­tion Resource Group to modify the revenue guidance, but maintain "a Standard with strong prin­ci­ples and suf­fi­cient guidance for preparers to make sound accounting judge­ments". He further noted that the leasing project was finalised during the past year and will result in a new standard in the second week of January, which is converged with the FASB standard in its core objective (to move most operating leases to the balance sheet).

Next, Mr Hooger­vorst went on to talk about the expanded use of IFRS in Asian countries, specif­i­cally outlining progress made in Japan, India, and China, and provided an example of how far the acceptance of IFRS has come in the US. However, he noted that “the next several years are unlikely to bring big progress toward domestic use of IFRS in the United States. Still, there are substantive American interest at stake. IFRS strips out significant costs for American investors, multinational preparers and global accounting networks. More generally, the US has a big interest in a strong infrastructure for the global economy, of which IFRS is an important part.”

In dis­cussing the future of IFRS, Mr Hooger­vorst noted that it is important to make "financial reporting easier to digest, without sac­ri­fic­ing the quality and rigour of our standards" and he noted that there are many issues to consider to improve financial reporting and make dis­clo­sures more effective.

The full transcript of the speech is available on the IASB’s website.

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