On 17 December 2019, the IASB published the exposure draft of a new standard General Pre­sen­ta­tion and Dis­clo­sures that is intended to replace IAS 1 Pre­sen­ta­tion of Financial State­ments.

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

The DPOC will discuss:

• Introduction and actions from the DPOC meeting held on 18 February 2020 and public call held on 16 April 2020
• Technical Activities — Update report on behalf of the International Accounting Standards Board
• Formal approval for publication of the revised Due Process Handbook.
• Correspondence

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

The Committee will discuss the following:

• Administrative matters
• Supply Chain Financing — Reverse Factoring
• IFRS 16 — Sale and leaseback with variable payments
• IAS 12 — Deferred tax related to an investment in a subsidiary
• IAS 38 — Player transfer payments
• Work in progress

The full agenda for the meeting can be found here. We will post any updates to the agenda, our comprehensive pre-meeting summaries as well as observer notes from the meeting on this page as they become available.

In the final comment letter, EFRAG agrees with the proposals in the exposure draft published on 4 May 2020 that would defer the effective date of the January 2020 amendments to IAS 1 by one year.

EFRAG acknowledges that there may be related operational consequences of the amendments, but opines that the advantages of a deferral during this time of significant disruption due to COVID-19 would outweigh the disadvantages, as earlier application of the amendments will continue to be permitted. 

EFRAG also agrees with the IASB's conclusion that no additional disclosure requirements are needed as part of the proposed amendment, as paragraph 30 of IAS 1 will provide for the appropriate requirements.

For more information, see the press release and the final comment letter on the EFRAG website.

The update reports on the EFRAG Board webcast meeting on 11 and 18 May, the EFRAG Board and EFRAG TEG joint webcast meeting on 26 May, the EFRAG TEG webcast meetings on 6 and 11 May as well as the meeting of the European Lab Steering Group on 28 May.

The update also lists EFRAG publications issued in May:

• EFRAG’s final comment letter in response to the IASB Exposure Draft ED/2020/2 Covid-19-Related Rent Concessions (Proposed amendment to IFRS 16);
• EFRAG’s final comment letter in response to the IASB Exposure Draft ED/2020/1 Interest Rate Benchmark Reform – Phase 2 (proposed amendments to IFRS 9, IAS 39, IFRS 7, IFRS 4 and IFRS 16);
• EFRAG's draft comment letter in response to the IASB Exposure Draft Classification of Liabilities - Deferral of Effective Date - Proposed amendments to IAS 1;
• EFRAG's draft comment letter in response to the IASB's Discussion Paper DP/2020/1 Business Combinations—Disclosures, Goodwill and Impairment; and
• EFRAG's 2019 Annual Review summarising EFRAG activities in the field of financial and corporate reporting.

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

The webcast is hosted by IASB Vice-Chair Sue Lloyd and technical staff member Sid Kumar and covers the following areas:

• ECL model development
• Important characteristics of the ECL model
• ECL related disclosures
• Interaction with regulatory provisions

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

The guide has been prepared primarily to support pension scheme auditors navigate the additional challenges they are likely to experience as a consequence of COVID-19 in meeting their responsibilities towards the scheme’s annual report, including the audited financial statements. Trustees and accounts preparers may also find the guide useful.

The Guide is relevant to private sector occupational defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) trust-based pension schemes in the UK, including hybrid schemes and DC master trusts, applying Financial reports of pension schemes: A statement of recommended practice (the Pensions SORP), published by PRAG.

The guide covers a wide range of topics including:

• responsibilities for reporting to The Pensions Regulator
• the impact of COVID-19 on the control environment of pension schemes
• the trustees' report and the chair's statement
• going concern and the trustees' assessment of going concern
• accounting for scheme investments
• events after the end of the reporting period
• audit issues
• the auditor's statement about contributions.

It should be read alongside the latest available COVID-19 guidance from The Pensions Regulator, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and other key third parties.

A press release and the full guide is available on the ICAEW website.

The group’s membership includes:

• Charles Mario Abela, not-for-profit organisation (Malta)
• Maria Alexiou, preparer (Greece)
• Estelle Aymard-Young, financial institution (France)
• Emilie Beral, user (France)
• Donato Calace, digital tools (Italy)
• Daniela Cholakova, preparer (Bulgaria)
• Jean-Philippe Desmartin, user (France)
• Laura Girella, not-for-profit organisation/ academia (Italy)
• Michael Goebbels, preparer (Germany)
• Ulrika Hasselgren, user (Denmark)
• Christian Hell, accountancy profession (Germany)
• Marcus Looijenga, accountancy profession (Netherlands)
• Gloria Mazzocco, preparer (Italy)
• Giuseppe Milici, accountancy profession (Italy)
• Tegwen Le Berthe, user (France)
• Isabel Gavín Pérez, financial institution (Spain)
• Eckhard Plinke, user (Germany)
• Gunnar Rimmel, academia (Sweden)
• Dawn Slevin, other stakeholder (Ireland)
• Mirjam Wolfrum, not-for-profit organisation (Germany)

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

Update: On 27 July 2020, EFRAG announced that Charles Mario Abela and Dawn Slevin will be co-Chairs of the task force.

We support the deferral of the effective date for recent amendments to IAS 1 and believe that it is important that entities have sufficient time to analyse the potential effect of the amendments on the classification of their liabilities and, if necessary, renegotiate their debt covenants. In addition, we have observed some diversity in views on how to apply the recent amendments and suggest the Board consider additional guidance on how the recent amendments should be applied.

Please download the full comment letter here.

This issue features:

• IFRS Foundation response to COVID-19
• New project timelines
• We need your views—open consultations
• Stay up to date
• Resources for investors

The Investor Update newslet­ter is available on the IASB’s website.