The amendments were issued in August 2014 and reinstate the equity method as an accounting option for investments in subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates in an entity's separate financial statements. Endorsement of the amendments is currently expected in the third quarter of 2015.

The endorsement status report, dated 23 October 2014, is available here.

The full agenda for the meeting is summarised below:

Agenda papers from this meeting are available on the IASB's website.

Following its merger with the Investment Affairs division of the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the IMA is now responsible for issuing remuneration guidance setting out its members’ views on the role of shareholders and directors in relation to remuneration and the manner in which remuneration should be determined and structured.

Following the 2014 AGM season, the IMA has updated its Principles of Remuneration, noting that its members generally consider the payment of “allowances” to be inconsistent with the spirit of simplicity, clarity and pay for performance. Where a company uses such "allowances" as part of its overall remuneration package, the Remuneration Committee should clearly justify and explain why this is necessary.

The press release and revised Principles of Remuneration are available from the IMA website.

The TRG was formed in June 2014 and is responsible for soliciting, analysing, and discussing stakeholder issues arising from implementation of the new standards in order to assist the IASB and the FASB to determine what, if any, action will be needed to address those issues.

The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

Agenda papers from this meeting are available on the IASB's website.

The publications are:

• 2014 Handbook of International Quality Control, Auditing, Review, Other Assurance, and Related Services Pronouncements.
• 2014 Handbook of International Education Pronouncements.
• 2014 Handbook of the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants.
• 2014 Handbook of International Public Sector Accounting Pronouncements.

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

The IFRS compliance, presentation and disclosure checklist 2014 summarises the recognition, measurement, presentation, and disclosure requirements set out in IFRSs in issue as of 30 April 2014. IFRSs include Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the former International Accounting Standards Committee and Interpretations as issued by the IFRS Interpretations Committee and the former Standing Interpretations Committee. It may be used as a guide to assist in considering compliance with the requirements of the IFRSs. It is not a substitute for understanding such pronouncements.  This is a "pure" IFRS compliance, presentation and disclosure checklist.  UK IFRS reporters should additionally refer to 'GAAP 2014 Annual report disclosures for UK listed groups' for the legal and regulatory requirements which UK IFRS reporters will also need to comply with.

The IAS 34 compliance checklist 2014 summarises the requirements of IAS 34 Interim Financial Reporting, formatted to allow the recording of a review of interim financial statements, with a place to indicate yes/no/not-applicable for each item. The checklist addresses the requirements of IAS 34 as of 30 April 2014.  This is a "pure" IFRS compliance checklist.  UK IFRS reporters should additionally refer to '2014 update on half-yearly financial reporting' for the legal and regulatory requirements which UK IFRS reporters will also need to comply with.

Click for:

• IFRS Compliance, Presentation and Disclosure Checklist 2014 (Excel file, 3.5 MB)
• IAS 34 compliance checklist 2014 (Excel file, 81 KB)

In our response to the IVSC's consultation we support the Board's efforts to bring together national bodies of valuation professionals into a global representative organisation. However, we believe the role of the IVSC should be as an educational and coordinating body, rather than as an international 'standard setter', which suggests a significant degree of regulatory rigor and compliance. We do support the IVSC developing valuation guidance based on clear principles that can be applied across asset (and liability) types in order to facilitate a variety of valuation objectives, but do not support developing more asset-specific or sector-specific guidance.

Download the full comment letter.

We are supportive of the IASB in the development of an approach to account for dynamic risk management activities; however, we do not support the Portfolio Revaluation Approach as stated in the discussion paper because it will (1) conflicts with the accounting principles in the conceptual framework, (2) require risk management activities to be defined in order to determine what is in or out of the revaluation model, and (3) not build on the classification, measurement and general hedge accounting concepts already established in IFRS 9. In addition, we believe that a portfolio hedging solution should be examined for insurers and other non-financial entities.

We also believe that an approach that combines existing thinking in IFRS 9 with the ability to behaviouralise cash flows on a portfolio basis (including core deposits) and allowing bottom layers to be designated has the potential to be more relevant than the existing portfolio fair value hedge accounting model in IAS 39.

Click for the full comment letter.

The paper is structured into five sections:

• Why does the European Commission deal with EU Member States’ public sector accounting?
• Why does the European Commission suggest developing European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS)?
• How did the EPSAS project proceed?
• The FEE position on EPSAS
• What are the next steps in the EPSAS project?

In the briefing paper, FEE continues to stress that a global solution (which alsready exists in International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS)) is the preferred solution. In an issues paper published in March 2014 FEE had already outlined a number of significant concerns in connection with EPSAS. Given, however, the urgent need for a reform of public sector accounting with the objective of greater transparency and accountability, FEE states that "EPSAS could be acceptable to encourage EU Member States to move towards accrualsbased accounting and increase the quality of their reporting" if a number of conditions are met.

After recently releasing a study analysing the potential costs and benefits of implementing EPSAS in the Member States and the suitability of IPSAS for developing EPSAS, next steps in the project are a European Commission 'Communication regarding EPSAS' and an 'Impact Assessment regarding an EPSAS Framework Regulation'. Both are expected in October 2014.

Please click for access to the briefing paper on the FEE website.

The website EPSAS.eu - an online project initiated by the University of Hamburg (Germany) and the University of Linz (Austria) - offers comprehensive information about the idea of implementing EPSAS. Please access the site's news section for access to all documents published so far.

Effective corporate governance is critical to the proper functioning of a bank, the banking sector and the economy. The proposed guidelines:

• strengthen the guidance on risk governance, including the risk management roles played by business units, risk management teams, and internal audit and control functions (the three lines of defence) and the importance of a sound risk culture to drive risk management within a bank;
• expand the guidance on the role of the board of directors in overseeing the implementation of effective risk management systems;
• emphasise the importance of the board's collective competence as well as the obligation on individual board members to dedicate sufficient time to their mandates and to remain current on developments in banking;
• provide guidance for bank supervisors in evaluating the processes used by banks to select board members and senior management; and
• recognise that compensation systems form a key component of the governance and incentive structure through which the board and senior management of a bank convey acceptable risk-taking behaviour and reinforce the bank's operating and risk culture.

The press release and proposed guidelines are available from the website of the Bank for International Settlements.