Disclosure Initiative: Accounting Policies: The Board will continue to discuss disclosures that simply duplicate the requirements of a Standard. The staff continue to recommend that the Board apply the concept of materiality to all types of accounting policy information, including accounting policy information that is standardised information or information that duplicates or summarises the requirements of a Standard.

Disclosure Initiative: Targeted Standards-level Review of Disclosures: The Board will decide whether the staff can begin the balloting process on Exposure Draft (ED) Targeted Standards-level Review of Disclosures—Amendments to IAS 19 and IFRS 13. The staff recommend proceeding with a comment period of 180 days (longer than the normal minimum of 120 days because the proposals could have significant consequences).

Extractive Activities: In September 2019, the IASB asked the staff to assess what problems, if any, entities with extractive activities have applying IFRS requirements and whether the primary users of their financial statements are getting all the information they need.  At this meeting the staff report the results of their research, which indicated mixed views. The Board is not asked to make any decisions in this session. Board members are invited to ask questions and to comment on the feedback.

Maintenance and Consistent Application

• Sale of a Subsidiary to a Customer. In October 2019, the Board discussed the accounting for transactions that involve the sale of a subsidiary to a customer when that subsidiary holds a single asset and whether IFRS 10 or IFRS 15 should apply. The staff conclude that if the inventory that is an output of its ordinary activities, but that inventory (and any related income tax asset or liability) are sold in a corporate wrapper IFRS 15 should apply. The entity cannot retain any interest in the inventory transferred to the customer.
• Accounting Policy Changes (proposed amendments to IAS 8 in relation to agenda decisions). In December 2019, the Trustees amended the Due Process Handbook to clarify that the explanatory material in an agenda decision derives its authority from the Standards and accordingly, entities are required to apply the applicable Standards, reflecting the explanatory material in an agenda decision. ED/2018/1 Accounting Policy Changes proposed amending IAS 8 to simplify the application of accounting policy changes that result from an agenda decision. The staff recommend that the Board not proceed with the proposed amendments and do no further work on the project.

IBOR: The IASB will discuss feedback on the Exposure Draft (ED) Interest Rate Benchmark Reform—Phase 2 (Proposed Amendments to IFRS 9, IAS 39, IFRS 7, IFRS 4 and IFRS 16), published in April 2020. The staff provide recommendations on all topics except for the proposals on accounting for qualifying hedging relationships and groups of items. That topic will be discussed in July 2020, when the staff also expect to ask the IASB to finalise the proposals.

More information

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

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released a report arguing that investors and equity markets have been ignoring the growing risk of financial losses associated with the continued rise in global temperatures, and suggesting that climate risk should be made a part of international reporting standards. Please click to access the report on the IMF website.

The Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) has released a report Falling short? analysing the 2019 environmental and climate-related disclosures of Europe’s top 50 largest listed companies. While the findings show some improvement in company disclosure compared to 2018, current reporting practices often still fail to provide investors with a clear understanding of a company’s development, performance, position and impact. Please click to access the report on the CDSB website.

The CDSB has also released a "TCFD to-do list" with nine steps to ensure that issuers are making effective TCFD aligned disclosures. The list can be accessed on the CDSB website.

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has released a new standard, GRI 306: Waste 2020, which updates previous GRI disclosures on waste, requires organisations to report on waste generated throughout the value chain, and release detailed information on its composition and how it is managed. The new standard is available free of charge on the GRI website.

The GRI has also issued new document, Linking the SDGs and the GRI Standards, that covers the 17 SDGs and maps them against the standards and disclosures that apply for each. Please click to access the document on the GRI website.

In addition, the GRI has published a new report, Using Corporate Reporting to Strengthen Sustainable Development Goals, with five key recommendations for how governments and other policy actors can use corporate reporting to strengthen SDGs progress at the national level. Please click to access the report on the GRI website.

The three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA - ESAs) will organise a public hearing on proposed ESG disclosure standards for financial market participants, advisers and products. More information is available on the ESMA website.

The United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative has launched a database of all guidance documents provided by stock exchanges for listed companies so that other stock exchanges can learn from their peers. Please click to access the database on the SSE website.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) has published a stocktake report on its members' existing regulatory and supervisory initiatives on climate-related financial risks. The report can be accesses on the BCBS website.

The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) has published its 2019 Integrated Report Building Consensus Towards a Global System. The report can be accessed on the IIRC website.

The German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) has appointed the Accounting Standards Committee of Germany (ASCG) with an extensive investigation of non-financial reporting. The investigation is meant to contribute to the further development of non-financial reporting at European level. Click for more information on the ASCG website.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) is offering a webinar "Assurance on sustainability reports: current practices and challenges" on 16 June 2020. More information is available on the UNCTAD website.

The Japan Exchange Group (JPX) has announced the publication of a new handbook to support listed companies who are choosing to work on ESG disclosure. The handbook is also available in the English language and can be accessed on the JPX website.

While respondents to the consultation agree that standardisation in the area would be beneficial and that the scope of the NFRD could be expanded, the idea of a Europe only solution meets resistance.

A coalition of ten organisations including ACCA, Accountancy Europe, CDSB, and WWF warns to "keep up the international role for reporting standards" and notes that "we need to bear in mind that challenges such as the worldwide climate crisis requires global efforts and solutions"; ESMA notes that it "is of the view that international alignment should be the objective"; and the IFAC "urges the Commission to adopt a global mindset".

Deloitte has also submitted a comment letter. We note:

We support global standardisation because the issues faced are global ones and many businesses have global supply and value chains and global investors.

Below is an analysis of all changes made to the work plan since our last analysis on 25 May 2020.

Stan­dard-set­ting projects

• No changes

Main­te­nance projects

• Accounting Policy Changes (Amendments to IAS 8) — this project has been removed from the work plan as the Board decided not to continue with this project.
• Amendments to IFRS 17 — this project has been removed from the work plan due to the issuance of the amendments.
• IFRS 16 and COVID-19 — this project has been removed from the work plan due to the issuance of the amendments.
• Supply Chain Financing Arrangements — Reverse Factoring — this project has been added to the work plan with a tentative agenda decision expected in the second half of 2020.
• The Board decided not to add a project on the sale of a subsidiary to a customer to the work plan (the staff had recommended a narrow-scope amendment).

Research projects

• No changes.

Other projects

• IFRS Taxonomy update — Common Practice (IAS 19 Employee Benefits) — this project has been added to the work plan with a proposed IFRS taxonomy update expected in the fourth quarter of 2020.
• IFRS Taxonomy update — Covid-19-re­lated rent con­ces­sions (Amendment to IFRS 16) — feedback on the proposed update is expected in July 2020.
• IFRS Taxonomy update — Interest rate benchmark reform — Phase 2  — this project has been added to the work plan with a proposed IFRS taxonomy update expected in the third quarter of 2020.

The above is a faithful com­par­i­son of the IASB work plan at 25 May 2020 and at 26 June 2020. For access to the current IASB work plan at any time, please click here.

We support the deferral of the effective date for recent amendments to IAS 1 and believe that it is important that entities have sufficient time to analyse the potential effect of the amendments on the classification of their liabilities and, if necessary, renegotiate their debt covenants. In addition, we have observed some diversity in views on how to apply the recent amendments and suggest the Board consider additional guidance on how the recent amendments should be applied.

Please download the full comment letter here.

The document offers the chapters 'Finding Value in Changing Landscape', 'Delivering Value — managing intangibles', 'Communicating value creation from Intangibles', 'Tools', and 'Experience & Cases', all of which are supported by examples, cases and interviews.

The chapter on communicating value creation from intangibles looks at two main aspects:

Why should companies report value creation from intangibles?

• Supporting and evidencing strategic positioning
• Building confidence and relationships with key stakeholders
• Differentiating from competitors
• Demonstrating progress on existing commitments and values

And what should companies report on?

• Unique value creation mechanism
• Strategic intangible assets
• Strategy, mission, vision, values
• Strategy for the future business, development and utilisation of intangible assets
• Governance
• Risks and opportunities related to intangibles
• Business environment

The WICI website offers a press release and access to the draft guidance. Comments on the guidelines are invited by 31 August 2020.