Trustees’ responsibilities include oversight of the organisation in the public interest, its strategic direction, appointments to the IASB, the ISSB, the IFRS Interpretations Committee and the IFRS Advisory Council, and ensuring the financing of the organisation and approving its budget. Trustees are expected to engage with the markets in their regional jurisdiction. Given the recent creation of the ISSB, the Trustees would particularly welcome applications from candidates with a knowledge and interest in sustainability-disclosure reporting and wider corporate reporting.

Please click for additional information in the press release on the IFRS Foundation website.

Below is an analysis of all changes made to the work plan since our last analysis on 29 April 2022.

Standard-setting projects

• Contractual cash flow characteristics of financial assets — A project newly added to the work plan; the next project milestone will be an exposure draft (no date given)
• Dynamic risk management — This project has been moved from the research agenda to the standard-setting agenda

Maintenance projects

• Lack of exchangeability — A decision on the project direction is now expected in July 2022 (previously Q3 2022)

Research projects

• Extractive activities — A decision on the project direction is now expected in July 2022 (previously Q3 2022)

Other projects

• IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Taxonomy — A project newly added to the work plan; feedback on the staff request for feedback will be discussed in H2 2022
• Research programme — This entry provided a history of research projects; it has been removed from the work plan
• Third agenda consultation — A feedback statement is now expected in July 2022 (previously Q3 2022)

The above is a faithful comparison of the IASB and ISSB work plan at 29 April 2022 and 30 May 2022. For access to the current work plan at any time, please click here.

The SSAF will be established in 2022 to formalise and streamline the relationships between the IFRS Foundation and ISSB with the relevant jurisdictional and regional bodies, in order to bring important regional perspectives to the ISSB's technical work and to offer feedback on the most important issues of the day.

The SSAF is comprised of 12-16 members and a non-voting chair (being the IASB chair or vice-chair).  The 12-16 members are sourced from the following geographical regions:

• Africa: 1 member
• Americas (North and South): 3 members
• Asia/Oceania: 3 members
• Europe (including non-EU): 3 members
• World at large*: minimum 2, up to 6 members

* subject to maintaining overall geographical balance.

Membership of the SSAF is open to all relevant jurisdictional and regional bodies with existing expertise in sustainability-related reporting relevant to the development of IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards that are interoperable with jurisdictional sustainability-related reporting requirements.

The closing date for applications is 11 July 2022.

Please click for more information in the press release on the IFRS Foundation website.

The findings are contained within two reports; one containing key findings and another on good practices. 

The purpose of these documents is to share with auditors, audit committees, investors and other users of audited financial statements the nature of the key findings and good practices reported on the individual audits inspected.

The press release and links to individual reports are available on the FRC website.

The UKEB highlights the importance of this issue to the insurance industry and indicates that finalising an agenda decision that clarifies the application of IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts would enable insurers and auditors to move towards the initial application of IFRS 17 with greater certainty over this issue and would also remove potential diversity in practice.  In that respect the UKEB encourages the IFRS Interpretations Committee to finalise the decision as soon as possible.

The UKEB acknowledges the concerns expressed by various stakeholders regarding the tentative agenda decision and indicates that they should be considered by the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) on a holistic basis once experience has been gained of applying the standard in practice.  These areas include:

• Uncertainty over the concept of insurance service and what that might comprise, how its transfer to policyholders might be measured and whether that should necessarily be linked to, or limited by policyholders’ ability to make valid claims in the period.
• Interaction of the CSM with the risk adjustment for non-financial risk.
• Whether the criteria for recognition of an investment-return service operate as intended, and whether further guidance on splitting the CSM between different insurance contract services would be useful.

The UKEB believes that there is a risk of further diversity in practice if these matters are not addressed and that they should be addressed as part of the IFRS 17 post-implementation review

The final comment letter is available on the UKEB website.

In March 2022, the ISSB issued two EDs, IFRS S1 (ED/2022/S1) and IFRS S2 (ED/2022/S2).  The UKEB welcomes the exposure drafts and supports the need for a general requirements framework for sustainability-related information.  It also 'strongly supports' the alignment of IFRS S2 exposure draft with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Recommendations.

It acknowledges many areas of alignment with the International Accounting Standard Board’s (IASB's) Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting, IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements and IAS 8 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors, and believes this will improve connectivity with the financial reports and help stakeholders to better understand the information presented.

The letter also makes several recommendations in relation to the proposed approach.

Comments on the draft comment letter are requested by 27 June 2022.

The draft comment letter and the invitation to comment are available on the UKEB website.

Ms Mezon-Hutter has served as a member, Vice-Chair and ultimately Chair of the Canadian Accounting Standards Board (AcSB). She has also served on the IASB’s Accounting Standards Advisory Forum. Before joining the AcSB, Mezon-Hutter served as the Chief Accountant at Royal Bank of Canada.

Mr Uhl has served as a Partner and National Director for Accounting Standards at Deloitte in the United States. He was also a member of the IFRS Interpretations Committee and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) Emerging Issues Task Force. In addition, he has served as a Professional Accounting Fellow at the Office of the Chief Accountant at the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Nick Anderson, Jianqiao Lu and Ann Tarca have been reappointed to serve a second, three-year term. Mr Anderson's and Mr Lu’s second terms start 1 September 2022, whereas Ms Tarca’s second term starts on 1 July 2022.

The press release on the IFRS Foundation's website also notes that Mary Tokar’s second term has been extended from 30 June to 31 August 2022. 

The participants discussed:

• Update on Trustees' activities and IASB activities — Main discussion points were
  • the multi-location model of the ISSB,
  • the ISSB’s due process approach,
  • asserting compliance with IFRS accounting standards and IFRS sustainability-related disclosure standards,
  • engagement being undertaken with governments, regulators, and jurisdictions on the EDs, and to achieve a global baseline,
  • connectivity between the IASB and the ISSB and the potential for IASB-ISSB joint stakeholder engagement,and
  • the IASB’s future work plan, new projects to be added to the work plan, and selected projects currently on the IASB's work plan.
• Update on the ISSB’s exposure drafts — Participants received an in-depth introduction to the two EDs and had the opportunity to ask questions.
• Feedback from previous Advisory Council meetings — Participants were updated on how strategic advice provided by members at previous meetings has been considered and applied to the work of the IASB, the ISSB and the IFRS Foundation.
• Introduction of the Chair of the ISSB and an update on the ISSB’s activities — Participants had the opportunity to ask questions regarding ISSB Board membership, challenges expected regarding ISSB standard-setting, ISSB standards and compliance with the SEC disclosure requirements, the culture of merged organisations, relations between standard setters, and emerging markets.
• Organisational culture — Participants discussed:
  • Advice on bringing organisational cultures together when working in a global multilocation setting with multiple organisational consolidations occurring, and in a context of hybrid working during a continuing pandemic.
  • How can the IFRS Foundation best build on strengths in the values and cultures of the legacy organisations and achieve a unified culture?

The full meeting summary (16 pages) is available on the IFRS Foundation website.

To gather UK stakeholders’ views on the ISSB’s Exposure Drafts, the FRC has developed a survey.  The data collected by the FRC will inform its response to the ISSB Exposure Drafts.  The deadline to provide comments is 29 May 2022. 

The survey is available on the FRC website.

The IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Taxonomy would be the counterpart to the IFRS Accounting Taxonomy developed to enable digital consumption of information provided by companies applying IFRS Accounting Standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

Responses to the staff request for feedback are due by 30 September 2022 and can be provided by filling in an online form or by sending a comment letter. Please click for more information on the IFRS Foundation website.