The meeting will cover an update from the Financial Reporting Lab on its current and future projects including:

• Climate change and workforce reporting; and
• Sources uses of cash.

Click here for more information and how to register.

Anne replaces David Cannon who has served as Chair of the AQRC and a member of the Conduct Committee since September 2015.

The press release can be found on the FRC website here.

Below is an analysis of all changes that were made to the work plan since our last analysis on 29 July 2019.

Standard-setting projects

• No changes

Maintenance projects

• Amendments to IFRS 17 — Discussions on feedback received on the exposure draft is expected to occur in November 2019 (previously fourth quarter of 2019)
• Disclosure initiative — Accounting policies — An exposure draft was published on 1 August 2019, discussions on the feedback received on the exposure draft are expected begin in November 2019
• IBOR reform and its effects on financial reporting (Phase 1) — discussions on the feedback received on the exposure draft were concluded in August 2019, the staff will prepare the final amendments for publication (no date given)
• IBOR reform and its effects on financial reporting (Phase 2) — newly added to the work plan, no date given for the planned exposure draft

Research projects

• SME Implementation Group draft Q&A — newly added o the work plan, discussion of the feedback on the draft Q&A is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2019

Other projects

• Updated IFRS Foundation Due Process Handbook — Discussions on feedback received on the exposure draft is expected to occur in October 2019 (previously fourth quarter of 2019)

The above is a faithful comparison of the IASB work plan at 29 July 2019 and at 3 September 2019. For access to the current IASB work plan at any time, please click here.

The 7-minute podcast can be accessed through the press release on the IASB website. More information on the discussions is available through our comprehensive notes taken by Deloitte observers at the August IASB meeting.

The agenda for the meeting is summarised below:

For more information, please see the agenda on the IASB's website.

The Board decided that the amendments will: include an exception to the requirement in IAS 39 for retrospective assessment when a hedge is temporarily outside the 80–125% range solely due to uncertainties arising from the reform; provide relief from the separately identifiable requirement for ‘macro hedges’; clarify when the relief ceases to apply to a group of items designated as the hedged item; clarify that the amendments would apply to hedges of both interest rate and foreign currency risks; and simplify the disclosure requirements.

The staff will prepare the final amendments for publication.

Please click to access the detailed notes taken by Deloitte observers for this discussion.

The exposure draft proposes clarification of existing guidance for four public sector instruments:

• Monetary gold;
• Currency in circulation;
• IMF quota subscriptions; and
• IMF special drawing rights.

The IPSASB has come to the conclusion that monetary gold has similar characteristics to a financial asset and proposes to clarify that it is appropriate to account for monetary gold by applying the financial asset principles in certain circumstances.

As regards currency in circulation, IMF quota subscriptions and special drawing rights, the IPSASB has come to the conclusion that these all meet the definition of a financial instrument and proposes adding implementation guidance and an illustrative example to support stakeholders accounting for these instruments.

Please click to access the exposure draft Public Sector Financial Instruments: Amendments to IPSAS 41 'Financial Instruments', a short introductory webinar and an At a Glance introduction on the IPSASB website. Comments are requested by 31 December 2019.

The CFA Institute, a global association of investment professionals, has published a report entitled The Case for Quarterly and Environmental, Social, and Governance Reporting that is based on a survey of its global membership on the topic. Respondents to the survey believe that specific ESG and sustainability disclosures should be a regulatory requirement for public companies and that securities regulators should either develop ESG disclosure standards or support an independent standards setter (i.e., a single, global standards setter in this field) to develop such standards. Please click to access the report on the website of the CFA Institute.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has released a new report, The Money Trees, that finds that finds that 70% of 1,500 companies with high impact on forests fail to provide data on their impact and that corporate transparency on forests lags behind other environmental issues such as climate change and water security. Please click to access the report through the press release on the CDP website, which offers a first summary of the findings.

The Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) announces that the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) has issued environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure guidelines for listed companies. For more information, please see the press release on the SSE website.

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) announces that GRI 303 Water and Effluents 2018 and GRI 403 Occupational Health and Safety 2018 have been translated into Japanese. All Japanese translations of GRI Standards can be downloaded free of charge on the GRI website.

The update reports on the EFRAG Technical Expert Group (TEG) meeting on 13 August 2019 and written procedures during August 2019 including the approval of the EFRAG Board's final comment letter on the IASB Exposure Draft ED/2019/2 Annual Improvements to IFRS Standards 2018-2020. This was also the only publication issued by EFRAG in August 2019.

The update also notes that the EFRAG Board is expected to approve the following documents in September using written procedures:

• EFRAG draft comment letter on the IASB Exposure Draft ED/2019/5 Deferred Tax related to Assets and Liabilities Arising from a Single Transaction (Amendments to IAS 12); and
• EFRAG final comment letter on the IASB Exposure Draft ED/2019/3 Reference to the Conceptual Framework (Amendments to IFRS 3)

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

EFRAG "generally agrees with the proposals in the ED and considers that these minor changes will improve the consistency and understandability of the IFRS standards concerned", with the following comments:

• EFRAG suggests that the IASB should clarify that the amendment to paragraph D16 does not prevent a first-time adopter from using the exemption enabling it to set the cumulative translation differences at zero at the date of transition to IFRSs;
• EFRAG recommends that IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement be amended in the same way as the amendment proposed to IFRS 9 Financial Instruments. It also considers that the phrase "including fees paid or received by either the borrower or the lender on the other's behalf" is unclear and recommends that an example of such fees is provided; and
• EFRAG advises that additional guidance should be added to IFRS 16 on where the reimbursement of leasehold improvements may be considered as a lease incentive.

For more information, see the press release and final comment letter on the EFRAG site.