The 10-minute podcast can be accessed through the press release on the IASB website. Our Deloitte meeting notes of the session are available here.

A summary of the programme is set out below:

The WSS meeting will be immediately followed by a meeting of the International Forum of Accounting Standard Setters (IFASS).

The new set of editorial corrections affect the Red Book and the annotated Red Book 2019 as well as the Blue Book and the annotated Blue Book 2019 and regard IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements and the IFRS Foundation Due Process Handbook.

Editorial corrections do not change the meaning or application of pronouncements, but instead correct inadvertent errors. The editorial corrections can be viewed on the editorial corrections page of the IASB's website.

More in­for­ma­tion about the issues is set out below:

Click to access all our comment letters to the IASB, IFRS Foun­da­tion, and IFRS In­ter­pre­ta­tions Committee.

The DP considers three alternatives for accounting for pension plans in the scope of the project:

• capped asset return approach;
• fair-value based approach;
• fulfilment value approach.

The DP and a press release are available on the EFRAG website. Comments are due by 15 November 2019. There is also a short video presentation explaining the main ideas behind the DP.

The MCCG discussed the following topics:

• Overall proposed approach to reporting business model, strategy, operating environment and risks including cross-cutting issues;
• Business model;
• Strategy; and
• Operating environment and risks.

For more information, see the summary on the IASB website.

Professor Tarca's 24 minute webcast discusses:

• Definition and importance of comparability;
• research evidence in four research areas:
  • Policy choice;
  • Measuring compliance;
  • Comparing numbers derived in accounting systems; and
  • Comparability and market outcomes;
• Tools the IFRS Foundation uses to promote comparability; and
• IASB achievements and challenges.

Please click to access the webcast on the IASB website.

EFRAG ​welcomes the IASB’s proposals to provide relief on hedge accounting requirements and to split the work in two phases. As stated in the draft comment letter, the ‘EFRAG supports the proposals for providing relief on hedge accounting requirements in these periods until the uncertainty ceases to exist regarding how the reform of IBOR rates will affect the cash flows of the hedged item and of hedging instrument because the details of the replacement of interest rate benchmarks are unknown’. In addition, the EFRAG believes that the second phase related to replacement issues should be addressed as soon as possible.

Comments on EFRAG's draft comment letter are requested by 31 May 2019. For more in­for­ma­tion, see the press release and the draft comment letter on the EFRAG website.

Companies' lease obligations are moving front and center onto the balance sheet, as a new leasing standard wnet into effect for both US GAAP and IFRS companies effective 1 January 2019. Because US GAAP and IFRS have decided on different solutions and transition methods, investors need to carefully consider the impacts of the new standards on the companies in which they invest. The CFA Institute has therfore prepared a guide to help investors understand the change they are about to witness. It provides the top ten considerations for investors as they evaluate the impact of the change to the new standard. As the most significant change and the greatest comparability challenges arise from lessee accounting, the report focuses on lessee accounting.

The top 10 considerations identfied in the report are:

Please click to access the report on the website of the CFA Institute.

In June 2015 the FRC published a discussion paper on the same topic and found that ‘whilst the system of financial reporting is not fundamentally flawed, there is a higher incidence of poorer quality annual reports by smaller quoted companies than by their larger counterparts’. Therefore, the FRC has deveopled a guide that offers practical, cost-effective suggestions on how smaller quoted companies can improve the quality of their financial reporting and suggested questions for audit committees to ask themselves and those associated with the financial reporting process that are designed to encourage the smaller quoted companies to reflect on current practices and consider areas for improvement. The guide not only builds on the 2015 discussion paper but also includes more recent developments such as three new international accounting standards, on revenue (IFRS 15), leases (IFRS 16) and financial instruments (IFRS 9), coming into effect in the last three years.

Please click to access the guide on the FRC website.