The following topics are on the agenda.

Maintenance and consistent application

The IASB will make its final decisions on supplier finance arrangements and lack of exchangeability, and will discuss potential items for the next annual improvements cycle.

Supplier Finance Arrangements—The staff recommend that the effective date for the amendments should be for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2024, with earlier application permitted. The staff also recommend that the IASB does not require disclosure of comparative information for prior periods in the annual reporting period it first applies the amendments. Further, the staff recommend that the IASB does not require the disclosure of certain quantitative information in an entity’s first annual financial statements after the amendments become effective.

Lack of Exchangeability—The staff recommend that the IASB proceed with the amendments to IFRS 1 as proposed in the ED but make no amendments to IFRS 13. The staff also recommend that the IASB should require an entity to apply the amendments for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2025, with earlier application permitted.

Annual Improvements to IFRS Accounting Standards—The staff recommend that the IASB propose amendments relating to the following items in its next Annual Improvements cycle: hedge accounting by a first-time adopter (IFRS 1); determination of a ‘de facto agent’ (IFRS 10); transaction price (IFRS 9); cost method (IAS 7); gain or loss on derecognition (IFRS 7); credit risk disclosures (IFRS 7).

Post-implementation Review of the IFRS 9 Impairment Requirements

The IASB will discuss which items to include in the upcoming Request for Information (RFI) on the post-implementation review of the IFRS 9 impairment requirements. The staff recommend the following topics: general approach to recognition of expected credit losses (ECL); determining significant increase in credit risk; measurement of ECL; purchased or originated credit-impaired financial assets; simplified approach for trade receivables, contract assets and lease receivables; loan commitments and financial guarantee contracts; interaction between ECL and other requirements; transition; and objective-based disclosure requirements. The IASB will be asked to approve the publication of, and set a comment period for, the RFI at a future meeting.

Rate-regulated Activities

The IASB will redeliberate the proposals on recognition and total allowed compensation in the Exposure Draft Regulatory Assets and Regulatory Liabilities. The staff make specific recommendations with regard to the recognition threshold, enforceability and recognition and performance incentives.

Dynamic Risk Management

The IASB will discuss whether financial assets measured at FVOCI or FVPL are eligible for inclusion in the concept of current net open risk position (CNOP). The staff recommend that financial assets measured at FVOCI are eligible for designation in the CNOP, while financial assets measured at FVPL are not eligible for designation in CNOP. The staff also recommend not requiring the retrospective assessment against an entity’s target profile, and only keep the retrospective assessment to check whether the entity has mitigated interest rate risk during the assessment period when applying the DRM model. In addition, the staff recommend the introduction of another retrospective assessment based on the entity’s capacity to realise the expected benefits.

Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Equity

The IASB will make decisions related to the classification and presentation of issued financial instruments applying IAS 32 and IAS 1. The staff make specific recommendations with regard to the fixed-for-fixed condition, reclassification, the effects of laws on contractual terms, obligations to redeem own equity instruments, and presentation of financial liabilities and equity instruments.

Business Combinations—Disclosure, Goodwill and Impairment

The IASB will decide on certain aspects of the proposed package of new disclosures, focusing on the application of the ‘management approach’, how long information should be required for, changing metrics, use of ranges, and key objectives.

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

The following topics are on the agenda:

Sources of guidance to identify sustainability-related risks and opportunities and disclosures

The staff recommend that the ISSB amend the references to ‘other standard-setting bodies whose requirements are designed to meet the needs of users of general purpose financial reporting’ and ‘entities that operate in the same industries or geographies’ to state that preparers may consider such sources, both in the identification of sustainability-related risks and opportunities and in the identification of disclosures about those risks and opportunities, but that such consideration is not a requirement. The staff also recommend that the ISSB amend the sources of guidance to explicitly state that preparers may consider the GRI Standards and ESRS to identify disclosures about sustainability-related risks and opportunities that meet the objectives of [draft] S1.

Effective date

The staff recommend that the ISSB require both IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 are effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2024. The staff also recommend that the ISSB confirm that early application of IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 is permitted, but only if an entity applies both IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 at the same time. An entity would be required to disclose that it applies IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 early. ISSB members are also asked to vote on the staff recommendation related to the applicable timing of the transitional relief from the requirement for an entity to report their sustainability-related financial disclosures at the same time as their financial statements; from the requirement for an entity to measure Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emission in accordance with the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, when they are doing so for the first time by applying IFRS S2; and from the requirement for an entity to disclosure its Scope 3 GHG emissions.

Due process and permission to ballot

In this session, the staff will summarise the due process steps undertaken throughout the General Sustainability-related Disclosures and the Climate-related Disclosures projects and ask the ISSB if it is satisfied that the mandatory due process steps have been met in finalising redeliberations of the [draft] S1 and [draft] S2. The staff will also request permission for the staff to begin the balloting process for IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 and ask whether any ISSB member intends to dissent from the publication of IFRS S1 or IFRS S2. 

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

Main theme of the conference was the relation between academic research and standard-setting and, especially, how academics and their research can contribute to post-implementation reviews.

A recording of the one-hour chat is now publicly available. (Please note that the first eight minutes of the recording are a general introduction of the conference followed by a further five minutes of introduction of the speakers.)

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 (1–5): The ASAF members discussed the proposed topics for the next ASAF meeting and agreed to include the topics suggested. A discussion on the relationship between the work of the IASB and the ISSB was also suggested. In addition, an ad-hoc ASAF meeting was requested for the first quarter of 2023 to discuss the IASB proposed narrow-scope amendments to IAS 12.
• Primary financial statements (6–9): The ASAF members were updated on the results of the targeted outreach held between September and December 2022.
• Accounting for Variable Consideration (10–14): EFRAG presented research on the accounting for variable consideration. The research considered when to recognise a liability within the scope of IAS 32 and IFRS 9 for variable consideration that depends on the purchaser’s future actions and whether and when to update the cost measurement of an acquired asset for changes in estimates of variable consideration.
• Post-implementation review of IFRS 15 (15–27): ASAF members were asked for their overall views on IFRS 15, application matters, transition matters, and the benefits and costs of implementing and applying the standard.
• Business combinations under common control (28–47): The staff provided an update on the project and asked ASAF members’ views on particular aspects of the staff’s analysis on selecting the measurement method(s) to apply to business combinations under common control.
• Provisions — Discount rates (48–64): ASAF members provided views on discount rates for provisions and whether the IASB should amend IAS 37 to specify the treatment of non-performance risk as well as disclosure of information about rates used to discount provisions.
• Equity Method (65–72): ASAF members were provided with an update on the project and were asked for views on four alternatives identified to answer the application question around IFRS 10 and IAS 28.

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

During the meeting, participants offered comments on the papers to be discussed at the December ISSB meeting with a special focus on the proposed relief for companies in reporting their Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and on the consultation on agenda priorities. In addition, the participants also discussed the ongoing role of the Jurisdictional Working Group moving into 2023.

For more information, see the summary on the IFRS Foundation’s website.

For more information, see the UKEB website.

In the draft comment letter, the UKEB welcomes the exposure draft and supports its objectives, the accelerated timetable and the introduction of a mandatory temporary exception from accounting for deferred tax arising from the Pillar Two model rules. In addition, the letter also sets out some potential enhancements to the proposals which have been identified from analysis and outreach with stakeholders.

Comments on the draft comment letter are requested by 3 March 2023.

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

In November 2022, the IFRS Interpretations Committee came to the conclusion not to take onto the Committee’s agenda a request about how to assess whether a contract contains a lease.

While we agree with the decision as regards the first issue (the level at which to evaluate whether a contract contains a lease), we have concerns regarding the second issue (how to assess whether a contract contains a lease when the supplier has particular substitution rights).

Please click to download our full comment letter here.

We have no direct suggestions on the proposed order of prioritisation for reviewing the existing GRI Standards. However, we consider that, as an overall approach, revisions to the GRI Standards should seek to enhance interoperability with those developed and issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and other significant sustainability standards-setters. We agree that expanding coverage of climate-related matters is important, nevertheless, we also emphasise the increasing importance of social topics to business.

Download the full comment letter here.