The amendments are Property, Plant and Equipment — Proceeds before Intended Use (Amendments to IAS 16), Annual Improvements to IFRS Standards 2018–2020, Reference to the Conceptual Framework (Amendments to IFRS 3), and Onerous Contracts — Cost of Fulfilling a Contract (Amendments to IAS 37), all published by the IASB on 14 May 2020.

The Commission Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1126/2008 adopting certain international accounting standards in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 2 July 2021.

EFRAG has updated its endorsement status report to reflect that the European Union has adopted the amendments.

The UKEB secretariat seeks input and feedback from UK stakeholders as it develops its response to the IASB’s Third Agenda Consultation . For this purpose, UKEB is planning a series of outreach activities for stakeholders. 

This event will be chaired by Liz Murrall, UK Endorsement Board member and Director of Stewardship and Reporting at the Investment Association until she retired at the end of 2020.

The panel will share views and initial thoughts on the key questions in IASB's Third Agenda Consultation, including:

• IASB’s strategic direction
• Priority topics for IASB’s work plan for the coming five years.

Participants will be able to join the debate by submitting questions to the panel before and during the event.

Further details and information on how to register for the event are available on the FRC website.

Update 23 July 2021 - a recording from the webinar and slides are available on the UKEB website here.

The update reports on the EFRAG Board webcast meeting on 9 June, the EFRAG TEG webcast meeting on 17 June and the EFRAG TEG and EFRAG Consultative Forum of Standard Setters (EFRAG CFSS) webcast meeting on 16 June. The update also covers the activities of the European Reporting Lab as well as webinars and online outreaches.

The update also lists EFRAG publications issued in June including:

• EFRAG's draft comment letter on the IASB’s Exposure Draft ED/2021/4 Lack of Exchangeability (Proposed Amendments to IAS 21).
• EFRAG's response to the IASB's Request for Information on Post-implementation Review of IFRS 10, IFRS 11 and IFRS 12.
• EFRAG's Secretariat Briefing on Regulatory Assets and Regulatory Liabilities.
• EFRAG's 2020 Annual Review
• EFRAG Survey relating to the IASB's future agenda and EFRAG's Proactive Research Agenda

Please click to download the June EFRAG Update from the EFRAG website.

Before joining the IASB, Dr Barckow served as President of the Accounting Standards Committee of Germany (Deutsches Rechnungslegungs Standards Committee e.V.). He is a former Deloitte Partner and has been an active participant in numerous advisory bodies to the IFRS Foundation and the IASB, including membership of the IASB’s Accounting Standards Advisory Forum (ASAF) and the IFRS Advisory Council, and is a highly recognised expert on IFRSs at national, European and international level. In an interview published on the IASB website today he talks about his career, his experience at the Foundation so far and his priorities for the next few years.

Please click to access the interview on the IASB website.

We commend and continue to support the IFRS Foundation Trustees for their ongoing efforts to adapt the IFRS Foundation’s institutional arrangements to support sustainability reporting standard-setting and we encourage the IFRS Foundation to amend the constitution now to anticipate the further components necessary to support sustainability reporting standard-setting, which would increase the IFRS Foundation’s flexibility to respond. We agree with many of the IFRS Foundation’s proposals, but we have some concerns about specific matters. These are in particular:

• We recommend that the Constitution provides the structures necessary to ensure common ownership of fundamental elements that will be common to both Boards.
• We disagree with the proposal of a simple majority threshold for the publication of an Exposure Draft or final ISSB Standard. We recommend having the same voting thresholds as those for the IASB.
• We do not agree with the terminology proposed for the new board and its associated standards. We believe that it is fundamental that ‘reporting’ be included in both the Board’s name and its standards.

Please click to download our full comment letter here.

Highlights of the podcast include:

• the addition of three narrow-scope amendment projects to the Board’s work plan (amendments to IFRS 17 and two projects resulting from submission to the IFRS IC); 
• decisions taken regarding scope in the projects on primary financial statements and goodwill and impairment; and 
• a farewell from Hans Hoogervorst. 

The podcast (22 minutes in all, the farewell beginning at 13:00 minutes) can be accessed through the press release on the IASB website.

Please click to view the detailed notes taken by Deloitte observers for the IASB meeting.

A recording of the second webinar that explored in more detail the proposed new approach to developing disclosure requirements in IFRS Standards and included a discussion of the Board’s views on comparability, enforceability and electronic reporting is now available on the IASB website.

The new Directors join the FRC Board at a time of significant growth and transformation as the FRC transitions into the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA).

Appointments to the FRC Board are made by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

The press release is available on the FRC website. 

Mr Liikanen began his speech with a strong statement:

There is a path to global sustainability standards if we, on the one hand, can create a global baseline of sustainability-related disclosures to facilitate comparability for investment decision making and, on the other, work with jurisdictions to ensure compatibility between this global baseline and their own initiatives.

He then explained that while governments can establish policy frameworks, it is the investors that price investment capital based on how those policies will impact companies in the long term. This in turn provides companies with an incentive to embrace sustainable business models. Whether this process works smoothly depends on high-quality, globally comparable information on which investors can assess sustainability risks and make informed decisions.

Mr Liikanen then explained that this is the place where an investor-focused international standard-setter such as the IFRS Foundation comes in.

Firstly, the IFRS Foundation's approach to global standards is market and demand led. The Foundation provides a setting where investors, regulators, companies, academics and standard-setters from around the world can work and solve problems together. This work follows a transparent and inclusive due process that has evolved and proven valuable over time.

And secondly, the IFRS Foundation's experience in international standard-setting can help to overcome a situation where many initiatives attempt to improve comparability, but their numbers have led to greater diversity. The major players in the field, including the TCFD, the VRF and the CDSB, affirm that consolidation is required and have welcomed the IFRS Foundation's proposals to establish a new International Sustainability Standards Board within the governance structure of the IFRS Foundation. Mr Liikanen declared:

Our shared ambition is to introduce a global baseline of standards for sustainability-related disclosures which are focused on meeting the information needs of investors globally when assessing enterprise value. Enterprise value is a key concept, designed to capture expected value creation for investors in the short, medium and long term, and is interdependent with value creation for society and the environment.

Mr Liikanen then turned to the question of how jurisdictional and international standards can be reconciled. He noted that the approach advocated by IOSCO and others is to establish a global baseline of sustainability-related disclosure standards to meet investor needs, which would be made available for use by jurisdictions as a base for public policy needs. This approach would provide global comparability for investors in a way that allows jurisdictions to combine the global standards with their own additional requirements. He concluded his speech by stating:

To make this work will require political will, compromise and flexibility from all parties — including the IFRS Foundation. Success is by no means certain, but if you want global sustainability-related disclosures for investors, this offers a path.

Please click to access the full text of Mr Liikanen's speech on the IASB website.

The report, developed by IOSCO’s Sustainable Finance Taskforce (STF), reiterates the urgent need to improve the consistency, comparability and reliability of sustainability reporting for investors. It describes IOSCO’s engagement with the IFRS Foundation’s efforts to develop a common set of global sustainability standards to help meet investor needs and to set a sound baseline for jurisdictions to consider when setting or implementing their sustainability-related disclosure requirements. It notes:

IOSCO recognises that individual jurisdictions have different domestic arrangements for adopting, applying or otherwise availing of international standards. It will be important for individual jurisdictions to consider how the common global baseline of standards might be adopted, applied or otherwise utilized within the context of these arrangements and wider legal and regulatory frameworks, in a way that promotes consistent, comparable and reliable sustainability disclosures across jurisdictions.

In a speech given at City Week 2021 on 23 June 2021, IOSCO Chair Ashley Alder stressed the same point:

Within IOSCO, we fully accept that jurisdictional-level approaches are bound to differ. But for corporate reporting, it is essential that these domestic approaches will be fully interoperable with the emerging global baseline, avoiding the rule conflicts or overlaps that could devalue the overall effort. We cannot work in jurisdictional silos when the climate emergency does not respect national boundaries. It is absolutely essential that we resist fragmentation, which is a real risk all regulators are very aware of.

Please click for the following additional information:

• IOSCO press release with a summary of the key messages of the new report (link to IOSCO website)
• Full report (72 pages, link to IOSCO website)
• Transcript of Mr. Alder's speech (link to the website of the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong)

In addition, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has published a statement supporting IOSCO's approach (link to IFAC website).