November

Call for papers – 2023 IASB Research Forum

10 Nov, 2022

The IFRS Foundation has announced that it will host the 2023 IASB Research Forum in early November 2023 and are seeking research papers to help inform the IASB’s standard-setting activities related to intangible assets.

In particular, research papers are welcomed (but not limited to) the following research areas of interest:

  • Recognition and measurement
  • Disclosure in financial statements
  • Other information sources (i.e., management commentary and sustainability report)
  • Pollutant pricing mechanisms and cryptocurrencies

Research papers are requested by 31 March 2023.

For more information, see the press release and call for papers document on the IFRS Foundation website.

European Parliament adopts CSRD

10 Nov, 2022

The European Parliament has today adopted the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) proposed by the European Commission (EC) in April 2021.

The CSRD, adopted with 525 votes in favour, 60 votes against and 28 abstentions, will make businesses more publicly accountable by obliging them to regularly disclose information on their societal and environmental impact.

According to the European Parliament's communication, the Council of the European Union is expected to adopt the proposal on 28 November 2022.

It is also expected that the directive will enter into force at the beginning of next year at the latest.

The text of the CSRD adopted by the EU Parliament can be accessed here. There are no substantial changes compared to the text we analysed in our newsletter on the political agreement on the CSRD in June 2022.

Pre-meeting summaries for the November 2022 ISSB meeting

10 Nov, 2022

The ISSB is meeting in Frankfurt on Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 November 2022. We have posted our pre-meeting summaries for the meeting that allow you to follow the ISSB’s decision making more closely. We summarised the agenda papers made available by the ISSB and pointed out the main issues and recommendations.

General Sustainability-related Disclosures

The staff recommend that the ISSB clarify that the requirement to revise comparative information to reflect updated estimates applies to current period estimates that were disclosed in prior periods (historic estimates), and does not apply to forward-looking estimates. The staff also recommend that the ISSB confirm the proposed requirement for an entity to report its sustainability-related financial disclosures at the same time as its related financial statements but introduce transitional relief for a limited period of time to permit an entity to report sustainability-related financial disclosures up to three months after the publication of its financial statements. The staff will not ask the ISSB to make a decision at this meeting on how long the transitional relief should last.

Climate-related Disclosures

At this meeting, the ISSB will consider the proposed requirements for an entity to disclose information on strategy and decision-making (including transition planning) and climate-related targets. The staff recommend that the ISSB confirm, but clarify, that an entity would be required to disclose Information about its strategy and decision-making and information about its climate-related targets. The staff also recommend that the ISSB introduce additional disclosure requirements about the assumptions made, and dependencies identified, by the entity in developing its transition plan and the implications for the entity’s transition plan if the assumptions are not met. Furthermore, they also recommend the Standard include requirements to disclose information about the scope of the target to enable users to understand whether the target applies to the entity in its entirety or to only a part of the entity (for example, specific business units or specific geographic regions).

Cross-cutting

The proposed requirements in paragraph 22 of Exposure Draft IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information ([draft] S1) and the equivalent requirements in paragraph 14 of Exposure Draft IFRS S2 Climate-Related Disclosures ([draft] S2) would require entities to disclose the effects of its sustainability-related risks and opportunities on its financial position, financial performance and cash flows for the reporting period and the anticipated effects. The staff will present a summary of the feedback received and asks the ISSB to provide feedback on some illustrative examples they have prepared. 

ISSB Taxonomy

In May 2022, the IFRS Foundation published a staff draft of a taxonomy for digital reporting representing the disclosure proposals in the two ISSB exposure drafts. The staff draft was accompanied by a Request for Feedback soliciting public feedback on staff recommendations on fundamental matters that need to be considered early to enable the ISSB to develop a Taxonomy. The purpose of this meeting is to provide a summary of the feedback obtained during the feedback period.

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

November 2022 ISSB supplementary meeting notes posted

10 Nov, 2022

The ISSB held a supplementary meeting by video on 1 and 3 November 2022. We have posted our comprehensive Deloitte observer notes for all projects discussed during the meeting.

In the first session the ISSB discussed climate resilience and the use of scenario analysis. The ISSB decided to confirm that entities will be required to use climate-related scenario analysis to conduct its climate resilience assessment. However, an entity will be able to use a method that is commensurate with its size, capabilities and level of exposure to climate-related risk. References to ‘alternative methods’ will be removed.

In the second session, the ISSB discussed the sources of guidance to identify sustainability-related risks and opportunities and disclosures. The ISSB decided to modify the requirements for considering sources of guidance to identify sustainability-related risks and opportunities and related disclosures. The ISSB also decided to clarify for each of the materials referenced, if a preparer is required to consider these materials or if consideration is permitted as an option. Due to mixed views within the Board, the ISSB did not vote on whether references to Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) will be added.

Please click to access the detailed notes taken by Deloitte observers for the entire meeting.

IOSCO outlines need for timely sustainability disclosure and assurance standards

10 Nov, 2022

At COP27, the International Organization for Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has outlined the actions it undertakes to protect investors by mitigating greenwashing in financial markets, to contribute to sustainability disclosure standards benefitting issuers and investors, and to promote well-functioning carbon markets.

On sustainability disclosures, IOSCO set out its expectations that both disclosures and assurance standards should be ready for use by corporates for their end-2024 accounts. IOSCO noted that once the ISSB standards are available it will move quickly on its endorsement decision:

In 2023, the ISSB will issue its standard for climate disclosures and general requirements. IOSCO will move promptly to decide on endorsement and will develop a support program for its members to assist them in moving forward immediately should IOSCO decide to endorse these standards. IOSCO also supports the efforts of the ISSB in seeking to be inclusive through its capacity building partnership initiative.

The IOSCO also highlighted the importance of maximizing interoperability of standards and aligning key climate disclosures and noted that interoperability across the world will be an important factor in IOSCO’s endorsement decision. IOSCO believes close alignment between the ISSB and those jurisdictions seeking to implement their own sets of standards is essential to ensure capital flows to where it is most needed.

Please click for the full statement on the IOSCO website

FRC launches consultation on draft minimum standard for audit committees

10 Nov, 2022

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has launched a consultation on its draft proposal for a minimum standard for audit committees.

This follows the government's response to its ‘Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance’ consultation, and was driven by a specific recommendation from the Competition & Markets Authority’s Statutory Audit Services Market Study that the FRC “should have the power and a requirement to mandate minimum standards for both the appointment and oversight of auditors”.

The Standard is applicable to the FTSE350 only and is not intended to cover all aspects of the audit committee’s remit – it just covers the appointment of the auditor and ongoing oversight of the audit and the auditor.  Additionally until the establishment of Audit Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA), the FRC does not have powers to enforce the Standard and so until that time, the intention is that the Standard is adopted on a ‘comply or explain’ basis by FTSE350 audit committees.

In addition to an initial section on ‘Scope & Authority’, the draft standard comprises the following sections:

  • Responsibilities
  • Tendering
  • Oversight of auditors and audit
  • Reporting

Responsibilities

Key new audit committee responsibilities included within the Standard are as follows:

  • requiring that the company manages its non-audit relationships with audit firms to ensure that it has a fair choice of suitable external auditors at the next tender and in light of the need for greater market diversity and any market opening measures which may be introduced.
  • engaging with shareholders on the scope of the external audit (where appropriate).
  • inviting challenge by the external auditor, giving due consideration to points raised and making changes to financial statements in response where appropriate.

Tendering

This section of the Standard includes the recommendations from the FRC’s ‘Audit Tenders: Notes on Best Practice’ but has been expanded to incorporate considerations of the need to expand audit market diversity and also challenges to those firms eligible to participate in a tender process but who choose not to and how that is in the public interest. In particular, the Standard states “The Audit Committee should remind eligible firms that refuse to tender that they may as a result be ineligible to bid for non-audit services work.”

Oversight of auditors and audit

This section emphasises the need for the audit committee to create a culture which recognises the work of and encourages challenge by the auditor. The Standard also notes that engagement level Audit Quality Indicators can be used as evidence of the effectiveness of the external audit and the auditor.

Reporting

The audit committee will be required to report on the activities it has undertaken to meet the requirements of the Standard. Where, in line with the new responsibility to engage with shareholders on the scope of the audit, shareholders have requested that certain matters be covered in an audit and that request has been rejected, an explanation of the reasons why should be provided.

Following the consultation, the plan is for the standard to be available to committees on a voluntary basis by the end of 2023, ahead of the planned legislation that will make the standard mandatory.

The consultation is open until 8 February 2023.  A press release and the consultation are available on the FRC website.

IASB outlines responses to feedback from users of SME financial statements

09 Nov, 2022

The IASB has released a newsletter explaining how the IASB has responded to feedback from users of SMEs’ financial statements and describing the proposals the IASB published in the exposure draft.

On 8 September 2022, the IASB published ED/2022/1 Third edition of the IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard published (still open for comment until 7 March 2023).

The newsletter now released explains the feedback the IASB received from SMEs’ investors, lenders and creditors during outreach and as a result of the request for information published in January 2020 and how the IASB responded to the feedback with the proposals in the exposure draft.

Please click to access the newsletter on the IASB website.

Summary of the October 2022 CMAC meeting

09 Nov, 2022

Representatives from the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) met with the Capital Markets Advisory Council (CMAC) by video conference on 6 October 2022. Notes from the meeting have now been released.

The topics discussed at the meeting included:

  • IASB Update
  • Primary financial statements
  • Provisions — Targeted improvements
  • Post-implementation review of IFRS 9 — Impairment
  • Post-implementation review of IFRS 15

The meeting summary is available on the IASB website.

The next CMAC meeting will be held on 9 March 2023.

Summary of the October 2022 CGRR meeting

08 Nov, 2022

The Consultative Group of Rate Regulation (CGRR) held a virtual meeting on 4 October 2022. The meeting summary of the meeting has now been released.

The meeting focused on the interaction between the IASB’s tentative decision on regulatory returns on an asset not yet available for use and an entity’s capitalization of its borrowing costs and how the IASB might respond to feedback on the proposed treatment of the inflation adjustment to the regulatory capital base, as set out in the IASB’s Exposure Draft Regulatory Assets and Regulatory Liabilities.

The meeting summary is available on the IFRS Foun­da­tion’s website.

Summary of the September 2022 ASAF meeting now available

08 Nov, 2022

The IASB staff have published a summary of the Accounting Standards Advisory Forum (ASAF) meeting held on 29 September 2022.

The topics covered during the meeting were the following (numbers in brackets are ref­er­ences to the cor­re­spond­ing para­graphs of the summary):

  • Agenda planning and feedback from previous ASAF meeting (1–3): The ASAF members discussed proposals for its next meeting on 8–9 December 2022.
  • Subsidiaries without public accountability: Disclosures (4–17): The ASAF members were updated on the Disclosure Initiative — Subsidiaries without Public Accountability: Disclosures project and provided views on (1) parent’s consolidated financial statements be ‘available for public use’, (2) disclosure requirements, and (3) structure.
  • Post-im­ple­men­ta­tion Review of IFRS 9 (18–23): The ASAF members provided views on applying the impairment requirements in IFRS 9 and decided which topics to include as part of the post-implementation review.
  • Rate-regulated activities (24–31): The ASAF members were provided an update on feedback to Exposure Draft Regulatory Assets and Regulatory Liabilities and expressed their views on the IASB’s tentative decisions on scope and total allowed compensation.
  • UKEB research on goodwill (32–35): The ASAF members presented with the UK Endorsement Board’s research on subsequent accounting for goodwill.

full summary of the meeting is available on the IASB's website.

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