IASB continued its discussion on possible directions for revising the requirements regarding the transition to IFRS (which include IAS) in cases of a first-time application.

At this preliminary stage, the Board did not discuss detailed requirements but tried to identify whether certain key principles could be established, which would be applicable over time and regardless of the location of the company adopting IFRS for the first time. Some tentative principles, to be explored at the next meeting in October, were discussed as follows:

• An IASB Standard should deal with the issues of first-time application of IFRS. This Standard would replace the current guidance in SIC 8 and would override the current transitional requirements in IFRS in cases of first-time application of IFRS. Some preferences were expressed that the underlying principles in this Standard should be such that the Standard need not be revised every time the IASB issues a new or revised Standard.
• When performing the exercise of adoption of IFRS for the first time, some key dates need to be distinguished:
  • the date when an enterprise presents its financial statements under IFRS for the first time; and
  • the date when an enterprise applies IFRS for the first time to transactions and balances. A tentative view is that this latter date would be the beginning of the earliest financial year presented in the first set of IFRS financial statements. For example, any transitional employee benefit obligation under IAS 19 might be calculated at that date.
• As for the number of comparative periods to be presented under IFRS, the Board tentatively supported the idea that a reference should be made to IAS 1, which requires that comparative information should be disclosed at least in respect of the previous period. The Board tentatively considered that it was not within its mandate to interfere with securities regulators' requirements for additional comparative periods.
• In restating balances and prior transactions, an enterprise would use the standards that are applicable in the year when the enterprise presents its financial statements under IFRS for the first time. It would not use superseded or amended standards that may have been applicable at the time a transaction prior to the adoption of IFRS took place.
• The Board did not discuss the extent to which opening balances at the beginning of the earliest year presented and prior transactions would be restated. However, there was some support that certain transactions occurring before the beginning of the earliest year presented need not be restated. A business combination accounted for as a pooling-of-interests under local GAAP, which might have been classified as an acquisition under IFRS, was one of the examples that was discussed.
• The Board discussed whether, if a significant transaction or event that took place during a "look back" period (that is, a period occurring before the beginning of the earliest year presented, the length of which would need to be determined) were not restated, disclosure would need to be made to indicate that this transaction or event was not restated and the accounting treatment that was applied under local GAAP. The Board did not reach a conclusion as to whether such a disclosure is needed.
• In restating estimates at the end of the financial periods to be presented under IFRS for the first time, an enterprise would use the benefit of hindsight. That is, it would use the best information available at the time it presents its financial statements under IFRS for the first time. However, if a change in estimate can be associated with an identifiable discrete event (such as a change in a tax rate) that occurred before the enterprise presents its financial statements for the first time under IFRS, the financial statements would reflect the change in the estimate in the period when this discrete event took place.

On 12 September, IASB met in open session. Business combinations was the only technical subject discussed: