October

Updated IASB work plan — Analysis

01 Oct, 2019

Following the IASB's September 2019 meeting, we have analysed the IASB work plan to see what changes have resulted from the meeting and other developments since the work plan was last revised in July.

Below is an analysis of all changes that were made to the work plan since our last analysis on 3 September 2019.

Standard-setting projects

  • No changes

Maintenance projects

  • Annual improvements — 2018-2020 cycle — discussions on feedback received on the exposure draft is expected to occur in November 2019 (previously fourth quarter of 2019); projects that are part of the overall project are:
    • Fees in the ‘10 per cent’ Test for derecognition of financial liabilities (Amendments to IFRS 9)
    • Lease incentives (Amendment to illustrative example 13 accompanying IFRS 16)
    • Subsidiary as a first-time adopter (Amendments to IFRS 1)
    • Taxation in fair value measurements (Amendments to IAS 41)
  • Classification of liabilities as current or non-current (Amendments to IAS 1) — final amendments are now expected in the first quarter of 2020 (previously fourth quarter of 2019)
  • IBOR reform and its effects on financial reporting (Phase 1) — final amendments were published on 26 September 2019; the project has therefore been removed from the work plan
  • Onerous contracts — Cost of fulfilling a contract (Amendments to IAS 37) — the IASB decided on the future project direction and decided to proceed with final amendments (no date given)

Research projects

  • SME Implementation Group draft Q&A — project has disappeared from the work plan
  • Extractive activities — the review of research is now expected in the first half of 2020 (previously fourth quarter of 2019)
  • Goodwill and impairment — a discussion paper is now expected in the first quarter of 2020 (previously fourth quarter of 2019)

Other projects

  • 2020 Agenda Consultation — newly added to the work plan, a request for information is expected in the first half of 2020
  • IFRS Taxonomy Update — Interest Rate Benchmark Reform (Amendments to IFRS 9, IAS 39 and IFRS 7) — newly added to the work plan, a proposed IFRS Taxonomy Update is expected in October 2019

The above is a faithful comparison of the IASB work plan at 3 September 2019 and at 1 October 2019. For access to the current IASB work plan at any time, please click here.

Chairman of the Trustees believes IASB needs to be prepared for sustainability

01 Oct, 2019

The Chairman of the IFRS Foundation Trustees, Erkki Liikanen, spoke at the WSS meeting about his impressions after one year as Chairman and about three issues he believes the IFRS Foundation must look out for: its gains, consistent application, and sustainability.

Mr Liikanen began his speech by describing the three tasks the IFRS Foundation has (governance, responsibility for strategy, oversight) and noted that the Foundation is there to “ defend the independence of the IASB”. He called the history of the IASB a short but successful one with IFRS having become the de facto global language of financial reporting.

With that Mr. Liikanen turned to the three issues that he sees as the future task of the IFRS Foundation. Firstly, he said, the Foundation must protect its gains in times of  geopolitical tensions, increasing protectionism, and globalisation. He cautioned that “the IFRS Foundation is not immune against pressure”. He also noted that the Foundation cannot sit back and live on its successes but must work to make sure that IFRSs continue to be the global standard in uncertain times in order to continue to maintain the full confidence of the investors. In this context he described the IFRS Foundation as the “custodian of the IFRS product”.

Mr Liikanen then turned to the question of consistent application. He especially noted that in this area the IASB and the national standard-setters need to work together. While, as he said, the IASB can operate alone, it needs everybody else for support. And, as he said earlier, the national standard-setters really impressed him by the level of engagement and level of expertise. So, Mr. Liikanen concluded, for consistent application and the success of IFRS the Foundation always needs to keep an open ear and ask: “What can we do more?”

Mr. Liikanen concluded his speech by turning to the subject of sustainability, an issue investors increasingly ask for. They want pure financials “and more”, which would translate into the usual numbers plus environmental impact and long-term impact. So what would be the role of the IFRS Foundation in this? He noted that it is very difficult to follow the different systems. He said he had come across “many great products with great acronyms”. However, this means that information is not always comparable, while investors ask for comparability and tools to work with. And, he noted, some time in the future investors might come to the IFRS Foundation and ask for that there. Therefore, he concluded, the IASB is currently not moving into the foreground of sustainability reporting, but, when asked, “we must be prepared”.

Correction list for hyphenation

These words serve as exceptions. Once entered, they are only hyphenated at the specified hyphenation points. Each word should be on a separate line.