May

IASB and ISSB outline future plans for the use of the integrated reporting framework and the integrated thinking principles

25 May, 2022

The Chairs of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) have communicated plans for the future role, governance and development of the Value Reporting Foundation’s integrated reporting framework and integrated thinking principles as the VRF is being consolidated into the IFRS Foundation.

The statement notes that IASB and ISSB are convinced that the integrated reporting framework drives high-quality corporate reporting and connectivity between financial statements and sustainability-related financial disclosures. They therefore strongly encourage continued use of the framework and the principles underpinning it.

The joint statement explains that the framework and the principles will become part of the materials of the IFRS Foundation and the IASB and the ISSB will assume responsibility for their future use and development. The Chairs and Vice-Chair(s) of the IASB and the ISSB undertake that the boards will work together to agree on how to build on and integrate the framework into their standard-setting projects and requirements. The IASB and ISSB will utilise principles and concepts from the framework in their standard-setting work. The Chairs of the IASB and ISSB also commit to a long-term role for a corporate reporting framework, incorporating principles and concepts from the current framework. Such a framework would enable connected, holistic and cohesive corporate reporting.

Please click to access the full statement on the IFRS Foundation website.

 

Summary of the ISSB jurisdictional working group meeting

25 May, 2022

In April 2022, the ISSB formed a working group comprised of several jurisdictions to enhance the compatibility between the ISSB’s exposure drafts on sustainability disclosures and jurisdictional initiatives.

The working group held its first meeting on 16 May 2022 and a public summary of the meeting is now available on the IFRS Foundation website.

During the meeting participants provided an update of the ongoing developments in their jurisdiction in relation to sustainability-related reporting, provided an update on current plans and processes to obtain feedback from stakeholders on consultations, and considered areas where further work can be undertaken to establish a global baseline for sustainability-related reporting.

We comment on four IFRS Interpretations Committee tentative agenda decisions

25 May, 2022

We have published our comment letters on IFRS Interpretations Committee tentative agenda decisions related to IFRS 9/IFRS 16, IFRS 17 and IAS 32, as published in the March 2022 'IFRIC Update'.

More information about the issues is set out below:

Issue

Agenda decision supported?

More information

Lessor forgiveness of lease payments (IFRS 9 and IFRS 16)

Yes. However, we believe that further analysis may be warranted before the tentative agenda decision is finalised.

o    Deloitte comment letter

o    Committee discussion

Transfer of insurance coverage under a group of annuity contracts (IFRS 17)

Yes.

o Deloitte comment letter

o Committee discussion

Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPAC): Classification of public shares as financial liabilities or equity (IAS 32)

Yes. However, we suggest removing one statement that might be misread.

o Deloitte comment letter

o Committee discussion

Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPAC): Accounting for warrants at acquisition

Yes. However, we believe that some aspects of the analysis may require further consideration before the agenda decision is finalised.

o Deloitte comment letter

o Committee discussion

Click to access all our comment letters to the IASB, IFRS Foundation, and IFRS Interpretations Committee.

FRC amends 29 ISAs to reflect conforming amendments arising from the revision of ISA (UK) 315 (Revised)

25 May, 2022

The FRC has released 29 updated ISAs (UK), amended to include conforming amendments arising from the revision of ISA (UK) 315 (Revised July 2020) – Identifying and Assessing the Risks of Material Misstatement.

The revised ISAs (UK) are: 200, 210, 220, 230, 240, 250A, 260, 265, 300, 320, 330, 402, 450, 500, 501, 505, 520, 530, 540, 550, 570, 580, 600, 610, 620, 700, 701, 720.

ISQC (UK) 1 has also been updated.

A link to the updated ISAs is available on the FRC website here.

EFRAG announces outreach event on discussion paper on intangibles

24 May, 2022

On 30 May 2022, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) is hosting the outreach event "Better Information on Intangibles – What’s next?"

In August 2021, EFRAG published a discussion paper 'Better information on intangibles – which is the best way to go?'.

On 30 May 2022, EFRAG are hosting an outreach event during which speakers will give an overview of the input received so far, followed by discussion of the next steps for achieving better information on intangibles.

The event will take place at EFRAG in Brussels. The meeting will also be broadcasted.

For more information, see the press release on the EFRAG’s website.

FRC consults on amendments to its application guidance

23 May, 2022

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has issued Financial Reporting Exposure Draft (FRED) 80 'Draft amendments to FRS 100 Application of Financial Reporting Requirements Application Guidance: The Interpretation of Equivalence'.

The Draft amendments propose updates to the Application Guidance to FRS 100 to reflect changes to company law and decisions on equivalence further to the UK’s exit from the European Union.

Comments on FRED 80 are requested by 26 August 2022.

A press release with links to the amendments is available on the FRC website.

FRC concludes on its 2021/22 annual review of FRS 101

21 May, 2022

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has issued 'Amendments to Basis for Conclusions FRS 101 Reduced Disclosure Framework – 2021/22 cycle' which brings to a close the 2021/22 annual review of FRS 101 'Reduced Disclosure Framework'.

Pre-meeting summaries for the May 2022 IASB meeting

20 May, 2022

The IASB meets in London over five days, from Monday 23 to Friday 27 May 2022. We have posted our pre-meeting summaries for the meeting that allow you to follow the IASB’s decision making more closely. We summarised the agenda papers made available by the IASB staff and point out the main issues to be discussed by the IASB and the staff recommendations.

The following topics are on the agenda:

IASB Work Plan

Since January the IASB has removed from its work plan Availability of a Refund (amendments to IFRIC 14), Post-implementation Review (PIR) of IFRS 10, IFRS 11 and IFRS 12 and Pension Benefits that Depend on Asset Returns. New projects the IASB will consider are a high priority project to assess a financial asset’s contractual cash flow characteristics, a narrow-scope project on the interaction of IFRS 10 and IFRS 16 related to the sale of a subsidiary with a leaseback, a project to revise the Due Process Handbook’s objectives for PIR’s and research projects on intangible assets and the statement of cash flows and related matters. The IASB expects to finalise in 2022 amendments related to Lease Liability in a Sale and Leaseback and Non-current Liabilities with Covenants. The next consultation document will be an ED from the comprehensive review of the IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard.

Primary Financial Statements

The staff recommend the IASB confirm the proposed requirements to disclose the income tax effect and the effect on NCI for each item disclosed in the reconciliation between an MPM and the most directly comparable subtotal or total specified by IFRS Accounting Standards, but remove the proposed requirement to disclose how the entity determined the income tax required by the ED. The staff recommend that the IASB develop an approach of establishing a broad definition for income and expenses to be included in a single note about limited recurrence and requiring the note that provides information about income and expenses that meet the definition to be divided, so income and expenses with different recurrence characteristics can be identified easily. They also recommend that the IASB continue to include in the definition income and expenses that are dissimilar to those expected to arise in the future because they are lower in amount and for such items of income and expenses, reconfirm the proposal to require disclosure of the amount recognised in the period and an explanation of why that amount has limited recurrence.

Dynamic Risk Management

In February the IASB discussed an approach in which the designated derivatives would continue to be recognised at fair value in the statement of financial position with the DRM adjustment recognised in the statement of financial position, as the lower of (in absolute amounts): (i) the cumulative gain or loss on the designated derivatives from the inception of the DRM model and (ii) the cumulative change in the fair value of the risk mitigation intention attributable to repricing also risk from inception of the DRM model. This would be calculated using the benchmark derivatives as a proxy. The difference between the changes in fair value of designated derivatives and DRM adjustment will be recognised in in the statement of profit or loss. The staff recommend changing the mechanics of the DRM model to this approach and moving this project to the standard-setting programme.

Maintenance and Consistent Application

At its April 2022 meeting, the IFRS Interpretations Committee decided to finalise an agenda decision in response to a submission about whether, in applying IFRS 15, a reseller of software licences is a principal or agent. IASB members will be asked whether they object to the finalisation of the agenda decision.

Post Implementation review of IFRS 9

Most respondents to the PIR Request for Information (RFI) agreed that generally these IFRS 9 requirements work as intended, indicating that there is not a need for fundamental changes to the requirements. However, feedback indicated that the IASB could help entities with consistent application by clarifying particular aspects of the SPPI requirements. This was indicated in particular by the many questions raised by respondents about how to apply the SPPI requirements to financial assets with ESG-linked features, and about the scope of the requirements for contractually-linked instruments (CLIs). The staff recommend the IASB starts a standard-setting project to clarify particular aspects of the requirements for assessing a financial asset’s contractual cash flow characteristics (paragraphs B4.1.7−B4.1.26 of IFRS 9).

Second Comprehensive Review of the IFRS for SMEs Standard

At its May 2021 meeting, the IASB started deliberating specific sections of the IFRS for SMEs Standard that could be aligned with new requirements in IFRS Accounting Standards in the scope of the review. At this meeting, the IASB will deliberate: feedback on the scope (including the definition of public accountability) and name of the IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard; topics identified when developing the ED after considering the tentative decisions made by the IASB in deliberating this comprehensive review that are either potential inconsistencies or sweep issues; transition requirements for an entity applying the amendments to the IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard for the first time; and the effective date of the amendments to be proposed. The staff make an extensive set of recommendations, which are set out in the more detailed summaries.

Goodwill and Impairment

As part of the IASB’s work, the staff have performed further analysis on specific aspects of respondents feedback on the subsequent accounting for goodwill. The purpose of this meeting is to provide the IASB with a summary of the staff research. The agenda paper also provides information about the project plan and how this research is relevant to that plan. The IASB will not be asked to make any decisions during this session. The IASB will discuss the feasibility of estimating the useful life of goodwill and the pattern in which it diminishes; the auditability of the useful life of goodwill; the usefulness of information associated with managements’ estimates of the useful life of goodwill and potential consequences of transitioning to an amortisation-based model (Agenda Paper 18B)

Rate-regulated Activities

The IASB will continue redeliberating the proposals in Exposure Draft ED/2021/1 Regulatory Assets and Regulatory Liabilities. The staff recommend that the final Standard clarifies that for a regulatory asset or a regulatory liability to arise, it is necessary that differences in timing originate from, and reverse through, amounts included in the regulated rates that an entity accounts for as revenue applying IFRS 15. The also staff recommend that the final Standard not exclude from its scope regulatory assets or regulatory liabilities related to financial instruments within the scope of IFRS 9.

Disclosure Initiative — Targeted Standards-level Review of Disclosures

The purpose of this meeting is for the IASB to discuss the feedback from comment letters on Exposure Draft ED/2021/3 Disclosure Requirements in IFRS Standards—A Pilot Approach. The cover paper includes the background to the project as well as the following summary of the key messages in the comment letters. Almost all respondents agreed that the IASB should engage early with users of financial statements and other stakeholders when developing disclosure requirements in IFRS Accounting Standards, integrate development of disclosure requirements with the rest of the accounting model and consider implications for digital reporting. The IASB will not be asked to make any decisions in this session.

Disclosure Initiative — Subsidiaries without Public Accountability: Disclosures

The staff recommend that, if the IASB decides to proceed to finalise the draft Standard, it should finalise the draft Standard with the scope as proposed in the ED but commit to review the scope of the draft Standard as part of the post-implementation review of the standard. They recommend clarifying the proposals to assist in understanding the definition of public accountability and that an intermediate parent assesses its eligibility to use the draft standard in its separate financial statements on the basis of its own status without considering whether other group entities have, or the group as a whole has, public accountability.

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

G7 welcomes ISSB’s progress on global baseline of sustainability disclosures

20 May, 2022

The G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors have issued a communiqué which discusses work done to support Ukraine, macroeconomic stability, global health, digitalisation of economies, climate and environment, financial market policy and sustainability, and international financial architecture.

In particular, the G7 communiqué comments on the establishment of the ISSB and its future work:

The G7 welcomes the inauguration of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and its progress of work on the global baseline of sustainability reporting standards. We welcome the ISSB “path to global baseline” statement of 18 May 2022 and call on all relevant stakeholders to participate in the ongoing consultation on the proposed standards. We urge the ISSB and national and regional standard-setters as well as other reporting initiatives to actively cooperate in the process of elaborating the baseline with the aim of reaching standards that can be implemented globally. The baseline should be practical, flexible and proportionate and ultimately suitable for small- and medium-size enterprises and enable jurisdictions to implement the baseline and a more extensive approach to supplement the baseline. We encourage countries to prepare or continue to prepare the ground for usage of the baseline, aim to ensure interoperability of national and regional standards and the global baseline in order to minimise fragmentation of reporting requirements, reduce reporting burdens, and enable the availability of consistent sustainability information for users. We encourage the ISSB to continue its work on sustainability reporting standards beyond climate, such as nature and social issues.

For more information, see the communiqué on G7 Germany website.

ISSB success also requires action by others

18 May, 2022

The IFRS Foundation’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has published a summary of the necessary steps required to establish a comprehensive global baseline of sustainability disclosures.

The announcement highlights that the ISSB’s global baseline presents a unique opportunity to reduce the existing and further fragmentation of sustainability disclosure requirements and that widespread use of the baseline will reduce the costs for data preparers and improve information usability for data users. It also outlines the steps the ISSB has taken, and is taking, to have completed by the end of 2022 the necessary institutional and technical standard-setting work to establish the core elements of the global baseline. Nevertheless, the announcement also stresses that achieving this goal will require actions by others, in particular by jurisdictional authorities and market participants. It states:

Once in place, the future success of the global baseline will depend on combined action by public authorities to incorporate it into their jurisdictional reporting requirements, and market demand through investors and others encouraging use of the ISSB’s IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards. The ISSB reaffirmed its commitment to work collaboratively with jurisdictions and stakeholders in pursuit of this public interest objective and is poised to engage proactively as jurisdictions and other stakeholders begin their evaluation of the ISSB’s standards.

Please click to access the full announcement on the IFRS Foundation website.

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