The areas of FRS 102 affected are:  

• Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’.  The FRC has issued editorial amendments regarding presentation requirements for financial instruments when an entity chooses to apply the recognition and measurement provisions of International Accounting Standard (IAS) 39 ‘Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement’ or International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 9 ‘Financial Instruments’ and/or IAS 39.  The editorial amendments relate to paragraph 11.2 of Section 11 and paragraph 12.2 of Section 12.
• Section 35 ‘Transition to this FRS’.  The FRC has issued an editorial amendment regarding transitional exemptions in relation to accounting for service concession arrangements.  The editorial amendment relates to paragraph 35.10(i) of Section 35. 

In November 2013, the FRC issued three clarification statements in relation to Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’, Section 29 ‘Income Tax’ and Section 1 ‘Scope’.  

The full document of all editorial amendments and clarification statements to FRS 102 (as of March 2014) can be found on the FRC website.

The conference will feature presentations by IASB Vice-Chairman Ian Mackintosh and IASB members (Stephen Cooper, Patrick Finnegan, Darrel Scott, Wei-Guo Zhang).

Some of the topics to be covered at the conference include:

• The future of financial reporting
• IASB update:
  • Major IFRSs
  • Implementation
  • Conceptual framework
  • Research projects
• Panel discussions on IFRS disclosures, the upcoming revenue requirements, and IFRS 9

The conference will also have break-out sessions featuring:

More details, including registration information, are available on the IASB website.

The ED updates the previous SORP (which was issued in January 2009) to include the requirements of FRS 100 ‘Application of Financial Reporting Requirements’, FRS 101 ‘Reduced Disclosure Framework’ and FRS 102 ‘The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland'; the three main standards that were introduced as a package to replace UK GAAP.  Many paragraphs of the SORP have also been re-drafted to incorporate recent legislative changes which allow investment companies to distribute capital profits by way of a dividend.

Our key comments are as follows:

• We believe that the guidance with regard to presenting total comprehensive income will encourage consistency in the sector.  However, we disagree with the proposed guidance to label a single statement as the ‘income statement’ as this is a defined term.
• Paragraph 39A includes requirements that do not appear to be consistent with the requirements of Section 11 of FRS 102.  We recommend that the draft SORP clarify that the effective interest rate method, without any adjustments, is the basis for calculating the yield on the instrument. 

Our full comment letter can be downloaded here.

The Parliament voted on a package that includes an annual contribution to the work of the IFRS Foundation of approximately 4.3 million euro. There were 474 votes in favour of continued co-financing and 28 against.

Michel Prada, Chairman of the Trustees, commented:

We will continue to work in close cooperation with the European Commission, to fully support its evaluation of Europe’s experience of IFRS and give consideration to any recommendations related to enhancements of the governance arrangements of the Foundation as part of our public consultation on the structure and effectiveness of the IFRS Foundation, due to begin in 2015.

Please click for access to the full press release on the IASB website.

Interested listeners have the ability to dial into the conference call.  Please click link for details of the registration on the EFRAG website.  The agenda can also be downloaded from the EFRAG website.  

Patricia McBride, who is a citizen of both the UK and Australia, has previously held technical roles supporting the standard-setters in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong on IFRS issues. Part of her career was also spent in academia. She will succeed Pieter Dekker who will leave EFRAG in early April, after four years with the organisation.

The current reform of EFRAG's governance and mandate as result of the Maystadt review will probably also lead to enhanced responsibilities of EFRAG's Technical Director.

Please click for access to the press release on the EFRAG website.

The IASB uses the annual improvements project to make necessary, but non-urgent, amendments to IFRSs that will not be included as part of another major project.  The ED proposes amendments to IFRS 5 Non-current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations, IFRS 7 Financial Instruments: Disclosures, IAS 19 Employee Benefits and IAS 34 Interim Financial Reporting. 

ESMA’s main comments are: 

• That the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) should ensure that the notions ‘held for distribution to owners’ and ‘cost for distribution’ are added/amended to all relevant parts of IFRS 5 to avoid potential diversity in practice and to achieve consistent application of the standard.
• That in relation to the proposed amendment to IAS 19, ESMA would like clarification “on whether the IAS 19 requirements for regional markets sharing the same currency also apply in the case where a currency is pegged to another currency”.
• That in relation to the proposed amendment to IAS 34, although ESMA are “broadly supportive” they believe that it is important that the interim financial report remains readable and understandable as a whole and that it should be safeguarded “from a potential excessive use of cross-referencing”.
• That the amendments in respect of IFRS 5 should be applied retrospectively, consistent with the comments made by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG). 

The full comment letter can be downloaded from ESMA’s website below. 

Click for: 

• Full comment letter (link to ESMA website).
• Our UK Accounting Plus project page on the Annual Improvements to IFRSs 2012–2014 Cycle.
• Our previous story on the Exposure Draft ED/2013/11 Annual Improvements to IFRSs 2012–2014 Cycle. 
• Deloitte's 'Need to know' newsletter on the Annual Improvements exposure draft.

We have previously posted Deloitte observer notes from the meeting.

Highlights from the meeting include:

• IPSASB governance review.  Whilst there was broad consensus that public sector accounting was in need of improvement, it was not considered feasible, at least in the short term, to extend the remit of the IFRS Foundation and Monitoring Board to encompass the IPSASB.  Discussion included funding issues, undesirable organisation impacts and the risk of increased political pressure and influence
• Leases project.  There was overwhelming support for including all leases 'on balance sheet', but there was a feeling that convergence with US GAAP, whilst very important, should not interfere with the completion of the project
• Future of corporate reporting. There was strong support for the current approach of involvement of the IASB with Integrated Reporting (<IR>), under which the IASB does not aim for being the owner of the developments but rather collaborates with the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and other standard-setters and stakeholders, while continuing its focus on its competencies. In relation to digital reporting, the Council advised the IASB to 'stay current on technological developments'. More broadly, the possibility of research projects on non-GAAP measures and further enhancements on management commentary were raised.

The next meeting of the IFRS Advisory Council is scheduled for 9-10 June 2014 in London.

The full IASB report on the IFRS Advisory Council meeting is available on the IASB web site.

The Committee will:

• Continue discussions on issues related to IAS 1, IAS 12, IAS 34 and IFRS 11
• Consider the finalisation of tentative agenda decisions on IAS 8, IAS 17, IAS 39, IFRS 10 and IFRIC 21
• Consider new issues on IAS 16, IAS 19 and IFRIC 17.

The full agenda for the meeting, as of 17 March 2014, can be found here.  We will update this page for any changes to the agenda, and our Deloitte observer notes from the meeting as they become available.

When FRS 101 was issued, the Accounting Council advised the FRC to update FRS 101 at regular intervals to ensure that it maintains consistency with EU-adopted IFRS. FRED 53 Draft Amendments to FRS 101 Reduced Disclosure Framework (2013/14) is the first such proposed update.

Our key comments include:

• We agree with the proposed introduction of paragraph 4A, which clarifies that FRS 101 accounts are Companies Act accounts and not IAS Accounts into the standard; the proposed changes to paragraph 6, which clarify the disclosures required by the Companies Act when a company recognises certain financial instruments at fair value, and the proposed changes to paragraph 8(l), which provide relief for qualifying entities from certain new requirements of IAS 36 Impairment of Assets. 
• Although the issue raised by the proposed addition of paragraphs AG1(gA) and AG1(gB) regarding when an entity preparing Companies Act consolidated accounts may exclude a subsidiary from consolidation is a valid one, we do not believe that it is necessary to amend IFRS 10 in the manner proposed.  In our view the appropriate way to deal with it is to add a paragraph to the scope section of FRS 101 highlighting this issue to users of the standard. This is due to the fact that an entity may not apply FRS 101 to any consolidated financial statements that it is required to or chooses to prepare, and so this issue is only indirectly relevant to preparers of FRS 101 financial statements.

Further comments and a full response to all questions raised in the invitation to comment are contained within the comment letter.