The Project manager explained that the purpose of this paper is to update the IASB members on the Interpretations Committee’s decisions on the discount rate project. The issue relates to a request received by the  Interpretations Committee to clarify whether corporate bonds with an internationally recognised rating lower than ‘AA’ can be considered to be high quality corporate bonds (HQCB), in accordance with IAS 19 Employee Benefits.

The Interpretations Committee discussed this issue in several meetings and noted that issuing additional guidance on, or changing the requirements for, the determination of the discount rate would be too broad for it to address in an efficient manner. The Interpretations Committee therefore recommends that this issue should be addressed in the IASB’s research project on discount rates. Consequently, the Interpretations Committee decided not to add this issue to its agenda.

One Board member asked about the currency issue in relation to multinational companies with several currencies. The Project manager responded that, according to the amendment proposed in the 2012-2014 cycle of the annual improvements, the discount rate should be determined in the some currency as the liability (if there are multiple currencies there will be multiple discount rates). 

One Board member expressed concern that the Research project should not be interpreted by constituents that it is going to answer standards level questions about what discount rate to use.

Another Board member mentioned that IFRS Interpretations Committee is still discussing the scope of the project.