Report on the May 2021 IFRS Advisory Council meeting

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04 Jun, 2021

A summary report has been released of the additional meeting of the IFRS Advisory Council held by remote participation on 11 May 2021.

Apart from the Chair's welcome and preview and an address by the IASB Chair Hans Hoogervorst, the only topic of discussion was the recently launched third agenda consultation.

General comments from Advisory Council members included:

  • The possibility to involve external partners in some areas (eg, digital financial reporting) to help alleviate some of the Board’s capacity constraints.
  • The Board’s agenda consultation focuses on the Board’s current scope of work. However, areas of digitalisation, stakeholder engagement, and understandability and accessibility are also relevant to the ISSB. Therefore, feedback on this agenda consultation may also provide valuable information for future work of the ISSB and its standard-setting processes.
  • The need to allocate some of the Board’s resources to coordinating the work of the Board and a new ISSB.
  • IFRS 17 Insurance contracts has started becoming quite topical.

In breakout sessions, the Advisory Council members discussed the strategic direction and balance of the Board’s activities for 2022 to 2026. They provided some comments on the Board’s six main activities:

  • New IFRS Standards and major amendments to IFRS Standards
  • Maintenance and consistent application of IFRS Standards
  • The IFRS for SMEs Standard
  • Digital financial reporting
  • Understandability and accessibility of the Standards
  • Stakeholder engagement

Regarding the criteria for assessing the priority of financial reporting issues that could be added to the Board’s work plan, Advisory Council members commented that the criteria could be split into essential criteria and non-essential criteria. The Board could also consider other criteria. They also noted that there is a lot of overlap and similarities between the first four criteria proposed by the Board. When there is a deficiency in current reporting, the Board should also consider the costs and benefits of leaving the gap unaddressed. The Board should consider the importance of the matter to a broad range of stakeholders, not only to investors. Advisory Council members also noted that it would be helpful if the Board clarified whether the criteria apply to new projects or the Board’s other activities as well, including the post-implementation reviews.

As regards financial reporting issues that could be added to the Board’s work plan, the Advisory Council members mentioned the following issues:

  • intangibles,
  • cryptocurrencies
  • climate-related risks
  • discount rates
  • discontinued operations and disposal groups
  • government grants
  • other comprehensive income
  • going concern

Some additional possible projects were also mentioned by individual Advisory Council members.

The full meeting summary is available on the IASB's website. There are also recordings of the individual sessions.

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