The report for 2017 provides an overview of the IFRS Foun­da­tion’s ac­tiv­i­ties during the past year and sets out the Foun­da­tion’s and IASB’s priorities for 2018.

For more information, see the press release and annual report on the IASB’s website.

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

The Board will discuss the following:

• Primary financial statements:
  • Results from NSS disaggregation survey
  • Additional proposals on aggregation and disaggregation
  • Staff proposals on analysis of expenses
  • Outstanding issues on management performance measures (MPMs) and adjusted EPS
• Disclosure initiative — disclosure objectives
• Business combinations under common control
• Rate-regulated activities — measurement
• Goodwill and impairment
• Implementation of lease incentives (IFRS 16)
• Insurance contracts:
  • Summary of the TRG for IFRS 17 meeting held in May 2018
  • TRG for IFRS 17 submissions
  • TRG for IFRS 17 implementation challenges

The full agenda for the meeting can be found here. We will post any updates to the agenda, our comprehensive pre-meeting summaries as well as observer notes from the meeting on this page as they become available.

The Committee discussed two issues.

The accounting when an entity makes a voluntary payment to a tax authority in relation to a disputed amount was discussed initially in March. The paper includes a discussion on how the staff thinks the IAS 8 hierarchy should be applied when there is conflict between a definition in the new Conceptual Framework and a definition in IFRS Standards (and in the version of the Framework it is replacing). That matter will be taken back to the IASB.

The new issue relates to the Venezuelan Bolivar and its lack of exchangeability. This was a preliminary discussion on how, or whether, the Committee should respond. It will come back to the next meeting.

The staff also discussed work in progress.

Please click to access the detailed notes taken by Deloitte observers for the entire meeting.

The proposed amendments would introduce a new threshold that requires a company to consider the expected benefits to users of financial statements and the cost to the company of applying accounting policy changes that result from IFRS Interpretation Committe agenda decisions retrospectively.

Please click to access the eight page overview on the IASB website.

When FRS 101 was originally published, the FRC committed to review the standard on an annual basis and update it to ensure that it maintains consistency with IFRS and remains cost-effective for groups. 

No amendments to FRS 101 have been made as a result of the 2017/18 review.  The FRC has also indicated that that detailed consideration of IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts will be deferred until a clearer picture of the progress of its endorsement is known.

The press release, amendments and feedback statement are available on the FRC website.

The purpose of the TRG is to seek feedback on potential issues related to implementation of IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts. During the meeting, the TRG discussed the following:

• Combination of insurance contracts
• Determining the risk adjustment for non-financial risk in a group of entities
• Cash flows within the contract boundary
• Boundary of reinsurance contracts held with repricing mechanisms
• Determining the quantity of benefits for identifying coverage units
• Implementation challenges outreach report
• Reporting on other questions submitted

A summary on the meeting and audio recordings of each session are available on the TRG meeting page on the IASB’s website. For more information, see Deloitte's related IFRS in Focus newsletter.

In addition, see the meeting summary and listen to the podcast on the IASB's website.

The FRC’s review covered the eight firms which have adopted the Audit Firm Governance Code and included 5 key areas, being design, implementation, monitoring, tone at the top, and independent oversight. In addition to the key areas they also considered some specific challenges to achieving an appropriate audit culture and what stakeholders such as investors and audit committee chairs thought of audit culture. The FRC found evidence that firms are investing “considerable” time and effort on their firm-wide culture.

The report includes examples for other firms to consider adopting, areas of common strength among the firms as well as key areas of improvement. The FRC indicates that “whilst progress made by individual firms may differ, there are a number of key areas where more should be done by the firms to establish, promote and embed an appropriate audit culture”.

These include:

• giving additional prominence to audit specific behaviours and values within the firms ’ cultural design, including the fundamental principles of integrity, objectivity, independence and professional scepticism that underpin high quality audit;
• ensuring that all audit partners and staff appreciate that a good audit is of significant societal value and helps to underpin transparency and integrity in business;
• balancing the firms’ robust processes to sanction poor quality work or behaviour with better recognition of positive contributions to high audit quality;
• further developing the firms’ root cause analysis (“RCA”) techniques to identify the behavioural or cultural factors that contributed to good and poor quality outcomes; and
• improving the firms’ monitoring of how successful they are at embedding their desired culture, including the INEs of the firms being more proactive when performing their assessment of the steps being taken by the firms to embed an appropriate culture.

A number of other findings are included within the full report. The FRC have included a summary of key findings, both strength and improvements by key area of focus..

The FRC plan to report publicly within the next three years on the actions firms have taken in relation to the findings of the thematic review. It will also consider culture, where relevant, in its planned 2018/19 thematic reviews on audit quality indicators (“AQIs”) and will follow up on aspects of this thematic review through its new audit monitoring and supervisory approach.

The press release and full review are available on the FRC website.

The agenda for the meeting is sum­marised below:

Agenda papers from this meeting are available on the IASB's website.

The review follows class inquiries undertaken by the Charity Commission which identify those charities who fail to file accounts properly in 2 consecutive years. These ‘double defaulting’ charities are then given the opportunity to file the required documents within a certain time period.

The Charity Commission review provides some wider lessons for trustees, auditors and independent examiners including:

• All registered charities with an income of over £25,000 and all charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs) irrespective of income, must file their trustees’ annual report and accounts and external scrutiny report with the Charity Commission within 10 months of their financial year end.
• It is the responsibility of trustees to ensure the right external scrutiny is carried out where required by charity law.
• It is the responsibility of trustees of charitable companies to ensure that their charity’s report and accounts are filed with both Companies House and the Charity Commission.

The review also highlights a number of resources to assist trustees and independent examiners on the preparation and scrutiny of the annual report and accounts.

The press release and report are available on the Charity Commission website.