The Boards considered the ways forwards in the FICE project and initial suggestions of some Board members to perform a targeted improvements approach in the areas of fixed-for-fixed guidance, convertible debt and redeemable and puttable instruments.

Most Board members expressed their concerns over timing of the project, given the convergence priorities (mainly to finish the four big projects — Revenue, Leases, Financial Instruments and Insurance Contracts) by June 2011. They noted that given these priorities the FICE project should be deferred. Another Board member noted that the Boards should first agree on classification and measurement of basic financial liabilities before proceeding to hybrid instruments. Additionally, several Board members questioned the usefulness of the targeted improvements approach — they noted that convergence within these issues would require significant time and would not lead to full convergence in debt and equity classification, due to divergent nature of the other guidance in this area. Some Board members question the usefulness of the project before the Boards address the issue what is equity on a conceptual level.

Given all these concerns the Boards decided to remove the FICE projects from its active agenda for the time being.