The report looks at how companies currently use video in corporate reporting and considers how it might be used in the future.

The review identified the following four types of video used in practice:

• News focused: videos that are tied to the overall reporting cycle and feature prominently on corporate or investor home pages. 
• Insight focused: videos that aim to provide more datail into a specific aspect of a company's business, relationships or operations.
• Aspirational: videos that look forward to a state that the company would like to achieve.
• Narrative focused: videos that tell a story about the company, such as its history or its work on sustainability issues.

For each of these types of video the report identifies examples that worked well in practice.  The report identifies that, for a sample of FTSE 350 companies, 86% were using video to some extent.  For those companeis samples, prevalence of video was higher in the FTSE 100 (100%) than the FTSE 250 (72%) and the most common videos used were 'News and insight' with 'Aspirational' the least used. 

The report also discusses three opportunities for change which may spur innovation in video-based reporting. 

• A longer-term regulatory outlook 
• UK digital reporting 
• Virtual and Augmented reality

The FRC press release, the FRC Lab report are available on the FRC website.

The amendments provide lessees with an exemption from assessing whether a COVID-19-related rent concession is a lease modification.

The European Union effective date is the same as the IASB effective date (1 June 2020).

The Commission Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1126/2008 adopting certain international accounting standards in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 9 October 2020.

EFRAG has updated its endorsement status report to reflect that the European Union has adopted the amendments.

The Staff Audit Practice Alert is intended to assist auditors in understanding what already exists in the ISAs today and how that material relates to the auditors’ consideration of climate-related risks in an audit of financial statements.

The Staff Audit Practice Alert covers:

• the purpose of the publication;
• entities that may be affected;
• management’s responsibilities;
• auditor’s responsibilities; and
• which ISAs may be most relevant in relation to climate-related risks.

IAASB Technical Director Willie Botha comments:

This Staff Audit Practice Alert shows that while the phrase ‘climate change’ does not feature in the ISAs, the auditor’s responsibilities under the ISAs encapsulate the consideration of events or conditions relevant to the susceptibility to misstatement of amounts and disclosures in an entity’s financial statements, which would include climate-change risk.

The Staff Audit Practice Alert is available on the IFAC website.

Specifically, Ms Ko discussed work done by the European Commission, CFA Institute, five ESG standard-setters, the World Economic Forum, and the IFRS Foundation Trustees towards establishing a common set of non-financial reporting standards. Ms Ko also discussed the new Sustainability Standards Board and the important role it will play in the development of sustainability standards and how the IFRS Foundation can aid in establishing effective synergies with existing financial reporting. She especially noted:

The Trustees of the Foundation are aware of the enormity of the task of developing a global set of sustainability standards. The Trustees are very clear that building on and working with regional initiatives is a ‘must’ in order to achieve global consistency and reduce complexity and hopefully cost too. [...] The new Sustainability Standards Board must develop a structure and culture that seeks to build effective synergies with existing financial reporting. This should give the IFRS Foundation an added advantage in playing a key role in the field of sustainability reporting. It would not be right to emphasise one form of reporting at the expense of another. [...] Approached in this way, everybody would benefit from the useful and globally comparable information and data that would result.

The full article is available on the IASB’s website.

The event will have a wide range of high-level speakers and will be seeking input from the community of in­ter­ested stake­hold­ers on the IASB’s pre­lim­i­nary views included in the Dis­cus­sion Paper Business Com­bi­na­tions —  Dis­clo­sures, Goodwill and Im­pair­ment and the EFRAG’s Draft Comment Letter.

Please click for more in­for­ma­tion and reg­is­tra­tion for the event on the EFRAG website.

The webcast will be held on 21 October 2020 at 11:00am BST and last about 45 minutes. To register for the webcast, submit a question, or for more information, please see the press release on the IASB's website.

The discussion paper outlines a blueprint for a more agile approach to corporate reporting which challenges existing thinking about how companies can more effectively meet the information needs of investors and other stakeholders.

Proposals include:

• unbundling the existing purpose, content, and intended audiences of the current annual report by moving to a network of interconnected reports;
• a new common set of principles that applies to all types of corporate reporting;
• objective-driven reports that accommodate the interests of a wider group of stakeholders, rather than the perceived needs of a single set of users;
• embracing the opportunities available through technology to improve the accessibility of corporate reporting; and
• a model that enables reporting that is flexible and responsive to changing demands and circumstances.

Comments on the discussion paper are invited by 5 February 2021.

Please click for more information and access to the discussion paper and related documents on the FRC website.

The FRC's podcast in conversation with Deepa Raval, Director of Narrative Reporting and Jen Sisson, Deputy Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs on the FRC's Future of Corporate Reporting project is also available on the FRC website.

The FRC also offers a launch event on 11 November 2020 to present an overview of key aspects of the consultation paper. Please click for more information here. 

The agenda for the DPOC meeting is sum­marised below.

Agenda papers for the meeting are available on the IASB's website.

UK Companies have been forced to change their approach to holding physical AGMs and embrace virtual and hybrid AGMs as a result of the disruption caused by Covid-19.

As part of the review, 202 FTSE 350 AGMs held between March and August were analysed. Key findings were:

• 80.7% of FTSE 350 sampled companies held closed meetings due to COVID-19.
• Of the 163 companies that held closed meetings, 81.6% made arrangements to allow for shareholder Q&A with the board. This was facilitated mainly through questions emailed to the company in advance of the AGM to either be answered at the AGM or have the answers posted to the website post-AGM.
• Of the 30 companies that held open meetings, 60% were facilitated through webinars or audiocast with live voting capabilities.
• Of the AGMs reviewed, 30 did not enable any shareholder engagement through Q&A before or during the AGM. The review provides a number of ways that shareholder engagement might be improved and made more effective.

The review found that shareholder rights are best served by companies which provide highly effective and clear communication before, during and after the meeting, and allow full participation from those shareholders that wish to attend the AGM either in person, or virtually. The FRC recommends all efforts should be made to ensure shareholders have the ability to vote following presentations from the board, rather than before.

The review provides an annexe which offers some practical advice for companies to consider for future AGMs whether or not there are restrictions on social gatherings and social distancing.

The FRC will convene a Stakeholder Group, including government, companies and investors, to consider recommendations for legislative change and propose alternative means to achieve flexibility whilst maintaining the integrity of the AGM. The FRC has asked the government to consider, as soon as possible, what measures may need to be brought forward to ensure AGMs are able to take place either virtually or as a hybrid during 2021.

A press release and the full review are available on the FRC website.

The podcast (16 minutes) is hosted by IFRS In­ter­pre­ta­tions Committee Chair and IASB  Vice-Chair Sue Lloyd and Technical Staff member Patrina Buchanan and focuses on sale and leaseback transactions, IBOR amendments, and recent changes to the Due Process Handbook.

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