IASB meeting — 20 and 22 September 2016

Start date:

End date:

Location: London

IASB (International Accounting Standards Board)

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) met at its offices in London on 20 and 22 September 2016. The Board discussed:

  • Draft Interpretation of IFRS 9 and IAS 28 — The Board was asked to clear for publication a draft Interpretation on the interaction between the impairment requirements in IFRS 9 and IAS 28. The draft had been developed, and approved, by the Interpretations Committee. That clearance was not given, with 10 Board members objecting to it. The staff have been asked to assess if there are alternative ways to address the issue.
  • Distinguishing between a change in accounting policy and a change in an estimate — The Board has been considering amending IAS 8 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors, to clarify how to distinguish between a change in accounting policy and a change in an estimate. The Board approved the changes, subject to some additional drafting changes. The staff will begin testing the wording using examples.
  • Financial Instruments with the Characteristics of Equity — The Board continued its discussions for the Discussion Paper planned on Financial Instruments with the Characteristics of Equity. The focus was on the application of the separate presentation requirements to derivatives classified as liabilities and the application of the Gamma approach to derivatives on ‘own equity’.
    The Board also discussed how to improve the disclosure requirements to provide information to users that is not provided through classification and presentation.
  • Conceptual Framework — The Board discussed the four topics: reporting entity; presentation and disclosure; asymmetry in treating gains and losses (prudence and neutrality); and the definition of equity. A paper on materiality was not discussed.
    The staff had recommended leaving the sections of the ED on the reporting entity largely unchanged. Although the Board eventually agreed with this recommendation, the staff will need to do more work on the drafting of this section. The Board did not support the recommendations on how the staff proposed dealing with asymmetry, prudence and neutrality and this will be brought back at a future meeting. The other recommendations were approved, although there was strong debate about matters such as whether there should be specific reference to the Statement of Cash Flows.
    The Board also had an education session (which means that no technical decisions will be made) on revisions to the measurement sections of the Conceptual Framework. We expect to see that topic come back in October.
  • Agenda Consultation — The Board heard the main messages the staff plan to give in the Feedback Statement on the Agenda Consultation. The updated draft is being presented to the Trustees in October and the Board will be asked to approve its publication sometime after that.

More detailed summaries of the discussions are provided for each project in the sections that follow.

 

Agenda for the meeting

Tuesday, 20 September 2016 (9:00–16:00)

  • IAS 8 amendments
  • IFRS Implementation issues
  • Conceptual Framework (education session)
  • Financial instruments with characteristics of equity
  • Agenda consultation

Thursday, 22 September 2016 (9:00–14:30)

  • Conceptual Framework

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

Related Topics

Correction list for hyphenation

These words serve as exceptions. Once entered, they are only hyphenated at the specified hyphenation points. Each word should be on a separate line.