The topics covered during the meeting were the following (numbers in brackets are references to the corresponding paragraphs of the summary):

• Financial instruments with characteristics of equity (1–6): The IASB staff provided an education session for ASAF members on the Discussion Paper Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Equity issued in June 2018.
• Business combinations under common control (7–25): ASAF members discussed (1) discuss the results of a joint investor survey conducted by the HKICPA and OIC as well as (2) measurement approaches developed by the staff for transactions within the scope of the Board’s BCUCC project.
• Better communication (26–41): ASAF members gave feedback (1) on moving the primary financial statements project from the research agenda to the standard-setting agenda and (2) on the AcSB’s draft framework for reporting performance measures.
• Property, Plant and Equipment – Proceeds before intended use (42–48): ASAF members were asked for advice on the possible ways forward regarding ED and the project in general.
• Goodwill and impairment (49–68): ASAF members (1) offered their views about disclosures that the Board tentatively decided to consider and additional possible disclosures the staff are considering to improve disclosure requirements for business combinations, goodwill and impairment and (2) were asked whether they have any suggestions or ideas for other possible disclosures that can provide better and timely information without imposing costs that exceed the benefits.
• Better communication (continued) (69–77): The ASAF members provided advice on (1) the Board's process for developing and drafting guidance for the Board regarding disclosure objectives and requirements and (2) which standards the Board should select for review.
• Accounting for pensions (78–91): ASAF members discussed a proposal that the IASB consider hybrid pension plans either as another dimension of the research pipeline project or a project in itself.
• Project updates and agenda planning (92–95): ASAF members discussed the proposed agenda for the October 2018 ASAF meeting.

A full summary of the meeting is available on the IASB's website.

EFRAG is currently in the process of preparing draft endorsement advice on IFRS 17 and in this context notes a number of concerns of its constituents. EFRAG has not yet determined the impact of these issues on the draft endorsement advice that is under preparation. However, as EFRAG also notes that the IASB is showing willingness to consider issues associated with the implementation of IFRS 17 and has already tentatively agreed small changes to the standard (to be dealt with as part of its annual improvements project), the EFRAG Board decided to bring the concerns of European constituents to the IASB's attention.

The letter agreed on yesterday can be downloaded here from the EFRAG website.

The new issues relate to:

• IFRS 15 — Assessment of promised goods or services
• IFRS 11 — Joint operations
• IAS 38 — Cloud computing arrangements
• IAS 27 — Investments in a subsidiary accounted for at cost
• IAS 37 — Payments relating to taxes other than income tax

The full agenda for the meeting can be found here. We will update this page for any changes to the agenda and our Deloitte pre-meeting summaries for the meeting as they become available.

The agenda is summarised below:

Agenda papers for this meeting are available on the IASB website.

On 28 June 2018, the IASB issued DP/2018/1 which defines the principles for the classification of financial liabilities and equity instruments without, however, fundamentally changing the existing classification outcomes of IAS 32. The IASB's proposed preferred approach is based on two features, timing and amount, and is accompanied by the provision of additional information through a separate presentation of expenses and income from certain financial liabilities in other comprehensive income and additional disclosures.

For more information on the outreach event, see the press release on the EFRAG’s website.

An agenda with supporting papers and details on how to register for the public meeting can be found on the EFRAG website.

An agenda and details on how to register for the meeting can be found on the EFRAG website.

The Update reports on the EFRAG Board meeting on 21 and 22 August 2018 and the EFRAG TEG webcast on 8 August.

The Update also lists EFRAG publications issued in August which included:

• EFRAG's comment letter and feedback statement in response to the IASB's ED/2018/1 Accounting Policy Changes (Proposed amendments to IAS 8)
• EFRAG's draft comment letter in response to the IASB’s Discussion Paper DP/2018/1 Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Equity
• EFRAG's summary of the responses received on its March 2018 EFRAG Discussion Paper Equity Instruments - Impairment and Recycling

Please click to download the August EFRAG Update from the EFRAG website.

Mr Hoogervorst began by discussing progress towards global accounting standards and reflected on Japan's 'very interesting economic experiment' of letting the market decide whether to adopt IFRS. He noted:

[A]round 200 mostly big, multinational Japanese companies have chosen to adopt full IFRS Standards, representing more than 30% of the total market capitalisation of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. . . . The number of Japanese companies using US GAAP has been steadily shrinking and is expected to be less than 10 soon.

He highlighted the results of Japan's experiment, emphasising that (1) given a choice, companies are prepared to voluntarily incur the cost of transition to IFRS; (2) 100% of the companies transitioning have chosen full IFRS rather than a version modified to meet local preferences; and (3) Japan has created a 'third way' for jurisdictions to move forward with IFRS, joining the 'adopt' and 'converge' models.

Mr Hoogervorst went on to discuss the reason the IASB changed its mind and decided to possibly reintroduce amortisation of goodwill in an upcoming discussion paper. (The IASB has not listed an expected date for this DP in its work plan.) He noted that the post-implementation review of IFRS 3 identified 'a couple of problems' with the impairment-only approach to goodwill:

[T]he annual impairment test is both costly and subjective. Often, the projections of future cash flows from cash generating units tend to be on the rosy side. Impairment losses therefore tend to be identified too late. And when an impairment loss is finally booked, the resulting information has only weak confirmatory value for investors.

After the discussion of goodwill, Mr Hoogervorst described the IASB's better communication project, promising to "improve what we have, rather than create big, new Standards." He underscored that upcoming projects will improve financial reporting at 'much less cost' because the focus will be on presenting better information that is already being collected. He then detailed aspects of the 'strands of work' that fall under the umbrella of better communications, including primary financial statements and management commentary. 

The full version of Mr Hoogervorst's speech is available on the IASB's website.

EFRAG published its DP in March 2018 to gather constituents' views in relation to questions raised by the European Commission related to the accounting for equity instruments which are carried at FVOCI.

The summary of responses describe the main messages and key themes identified from the 53 comment letters received on the DP, and include:

• The desire to wait for the IASB's post-implementation review of IFRS 9 before suggesting changes and/or that changes should be agreed with the IASB and not introduced at the European level.
• The reintroduction of recycling would improve the depiction of financial performance of long-term investors.
• Recycling should be accompanied by an impairment model.
• The preferred impairment model would be similar to IAS 39.

A press release and the summary of responses are available on the EFRAG website.