Symmetric prepayment options — Due process steps — Agenda paper 3

Background

At its January 2017 meeting, the Board tentatively decided to propose a narrow-scope amendment to IFRS 9 so that a prepayable financial asset would be eligible to be measured at amortised cost (or at FVTOCI subject to the business model condition) if certain criteria were met.

In view of the narrowness of the scope of the proposed amendment and the urgency to resolve the issue to meet the proposed 1 January 2018 effective date deadline (set to align with that of IFRS 9 in order to avoid preparers having to apply fair value accounting to financial assets containing such prepayment options and then having to change back to amortised cost once the proposed amendments become effective), the Staff had asked for, and had obtained, approval from the Due Process Oversight Committee to reduce the normal 120-day comment period to 30 days. 

Staff recommendation

The Staff recommended a 30-day comment period for the proposed amendments, and sought the Board’s permission to ballot.

Discussion

The Board unanimously approved the Staff’s recommendation with little discussion. The Staff expects to publish the exposure draft at the end of April and they are targeting to finalise the amendments, subject to the comments received and due consideration by the Board, in October.