The Board will continue to assess concerns and implementation challenges raised by stakeholders about the requirements in IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts. At this meeting the Board will consider four issues: insurance acquisition cash flows for renewals outside the contract boundary; reinsurance contracts held—onerous underlying insurance contracts; reinsurance contracts held—underlying insurance contracts with direct participation features; and recognition of the contractual service margin in profit or loss in the general model. In all cases the staff is recommending that the Board propose amendments to IFRS 17.  

The staff is recommending that the Board proceed with the publication of an Exposure Draft to amend IAS 12 Income Taxes, in relation to the deferred tax on assets and liabilities arising from a single transaction. 

The staff will also give oral updates on the projects on Rate-regulated Activities and Extractive Activities.

More information

Our pre-meeting summaries are available on our January meeting note page and will be supplemented with our popular meeting notes after the meeting.

Among Deloitte's WEF Davos activities is therefore a breakfast forum on Inclusive Capitalism on Thurday 24 January from 7:30 to 8:30 CET.

Panellists Mary Shapiro (Bloomberg/SASB Foundation), Mark Hawkins (Salesforce), Nils Bolmstrand (Nordea Asset Management AB), and Jessica Fries (A4S) will discuss how capital market participants can come together to make the world's financial systems more resilient for achieving sustainable value creation and long-term societal well-being. The discussion will be chaired by Deloitte's Global Chairman David Cruickshank.

Please click for more information on Deloitte's WEF Davos activities including the breakfast forum. All livestream events can be followed through Twitter and Facebook. and the events will also be available for subsequent playback.

Agenda decisions to finalise

The Committee decided to finalise four tentative agenda decisions:

• IAS 37 Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets: concluding that a voluntarily payment made by an entity to a tax authority in relation to a disputed assessment (to avoid possible penalties or interest) is an asset
• IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers: concluding that fees for admitting an entity to a stock exchange and fees for an ongoing listing service relate to only one service
• IAS 27 Separate Financial Statements: concluding that when an entity loses control of a subsidiary as a result of disposing some of its interest, an entity can elect to measure the retained interest at FVOCI and any gain or loss on initial disposal is presented in profit or loss
• IAS 27 Separate Financial Statements: concluding that the cost of a subsidiary acquired in stages can be either the fair value of the tranches (as deemed cost) or the sum of the consideration actually paid

The final agenda decisions, which set out the particular circumstances that led to these conclusions, will be published in IFRIC Update.

Other work in progress

The Committee will discuss feedback on tentative agenda decisions in relation to the application of the highly probable requirement in a cash flow hedge relationship and the recognition of a lease liability by a joint operator at a future meeting.  

The staff are working on potential amendments to IAS 21 The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates to provide more guidance when a spot exchange rate is not observable.

The staff are analysing requests in relation to (a) whether an entity applies IFRS 16 Leases or IAS 38 Intangible Assets to a contract that gives it rights to space below the ground for a period of time; and (b) whether the right to potential discounts affects the classification of an entity’s pension plan as defined benefit or defined contribution.

More information

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

The Amendments, published in October 2018 aimed at resolving the difficulties that arise when an entity determines whether it has acquired a business or a group of assets. 
 
EFRAG recommends the endorsement of the Amendments. EFRAG’s initial assessment is that the Amendments meet the technical requirements of the Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the application of international accounting standards.
 
Comments are requested by 4 March 2019.
 
For more information, see the press release, draft endorsement advice letter and the invitation to comment on the EFRAG’s website. EFRAG has also updated its endorsement status report that is available here.

The Board will discuss the following:

• Amendments to IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts
  • Insurance acquisition cash flows for renewals outside the contract boundary
  • Reinsurance contracts held
  • Recognition of the contractual service margin in profit or loss in the general model
• Extractive Activities
• Rate Regulated Activities
• Implementation Matters
  • IFRIC Update
  • Deferred tax related to assets and liabilities arising from a single transaction (Amendments to IAS 12)

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.

Applying the criteria for evaluating proposed amendments agreed on in October 2018, the Board is asked to consider the following aspects of IFRS 17:

The staff notes that papers on the remaining topics from the list of issues presented at the October meeting will be presented to the Board in the first quarter of 2019.

The report marks another step in the implementation of the EC's action plan on sustainable finance published in March 2018 and follows up on the EC's legislative proposal on the disclosure of climate-related information presented in May 2018.

The report contains proposals for disclosing not just how climate change might influence the performance of a company, but also the impact of the company itself on climate change.

The guidance proposed in the report intends to assist companies in developing high quality climate-related disclosures that comply with the Non-Financial Reporting Directive and address the recommendations of the TCFD. Specific disclosures and guidance are described under each element of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive requirements, including metrics for all in-scope companies, for non-financial companies, and for banks and insurance companies. In doing so, the report distinguishes between three types of disclosure:

• Type 1 disclosures – those that companies should disclose (high expectation that all reporting companies disclose them)
• Type 2 disclosures – those that companies should consider disclosing (expected of companies with significant exposure to climate-related risks and opportunities)
• Type 3 disclosures – those that companies may consider disclosing (additional or innovative disclosures that provide more enhanced information)

The EC will take the report into consideration when it updates the non-binding guidelines on non-financial disclosure that accompany the Non-Financial Reporting Directive.

Stakeholders are invited to provide with written comments on the report by February 1, 2019.

Review the Report on Climate-related Disclosures on the EC website.

The report marks another step in the implementation of the EC's action plan on sustainable finance published in March 2018 and follows up on the EC's legislative proposal on the disclosure of climate-related information presented in May 2018.

The report contains proposals for disclosing not just how climate change might influence the performance of a company, but also the impact of the company itself on climate change.

The guidance proposed in the report intends to assist companies in developing high quality climate-related disclosures that comply with the Non-Financial Reporting Directive and address the recommendations of the TCFD. Specific disclosures and guidance are described under each element of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive requirements, including metrics for all in-scope companies, for non-financial companies, and for banks and insurance companies. In doing so, the report distinguishes between three types of disclosure:

• Type 1 disclosures – those that companies should disclose (high expectation that all reporting companies disclose them)
• Type 2 disclosures – those that companies should consider disclosing (expected of companies with significant exposure to climate-related risks and opportunities)
• Type 3 disclosures – those that companies may consider disclosing (additional or innovative disclosures that provide more enhanced information)

The EC will take the report into consideration when it updates the non-binding guidelines on non-financial disclosure that accompany the Non-Financial Reporting Directive.

Stakeholders are invited to provide with written comments on the report by 1 February 2019.

Please click to access the Report on Climate-related Disclosures on the EC website.

In addition, EFRAG has reappointed the following members: Geert Ewalts, Günther Gebhardt, Heinz Hense, Andrew Spooner, and Ambrogio Virgilio. The EFRAG TEG composition becomes effective on 1 April 2019.

For more information, see the press release on the EFRAG website. The press release also notes that a new TEG Chairman will be announced "in due course".

The CMAC is a group of professional financial analysts who meet three times a year with members of the IASB to provide the views of professional investors on financial reporting issues.

For more information, see the press release on the IASB's website.