The rule changes, which would apply to foreign as well as domestic registrants, "will provide significant improvements quickly while other proposals are considered". The proposed rules are intended to:

• Accelerate reporting by companies of transactions by company insiders in company securities, including transactions with the company;
• Accelerate filing by companies of their quarterly and annual reports;
• Expand the list of significant events requiring current disclosure on existing Form 8-K, including changes in rating agency decisions, obligations that are not currently disclosed, and lock-out periods affecting employee stock-ownership plans.
• Require public companies to post their annual and quarterly reports on their websites at the same time they are filed with the SEC; and
• Require disclosure of critical accounting policies in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, contained in annual reports.

Click for Details of Planned SEC Rules.

(IASB has proposed to rename the group as International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee, or IFRIC.) Principal agenda items include IFRIC operating procedures, discussion of SIC D32, Website Costs, and proposals for the initial agenda of the committee. Click for the List of Members of the reorganised IFRIC.

Volcker and IASB Chairman Sir David Tweedie will testify before the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on 14 February 2002. They will give testimony at a hearing on "Accounting and Investor Protection Issues Raised by Enron and Other Public Companies: International Accounting Standards and Necessary Reforms to Improve Financial Reporting". Mr. Volcker was also recently appointed chairman of a new independent oversight board created by Andersen. Five former Chairmen of the US SEC (Roderick M. Hills, Harold M. Williams, David Ruder, Richard C. Breeden, and Arthur Levitt, Jr.) testified at a session of that hearing conducted on 12 February. Click for Hearing Information.

These would supplement financial statements prepared using Chinese GAAP. It is estimated that the total number of such IAS audits will be around 400 per year. Companies issuing 'B Shares' (shares available for purchase by foreign investors) already are required to publish IAS financial statements at the time of an offering and thereafter.

The following issues are on the Agenda for the London Board meeting:

• Business Combinations
• First-Time Application of IFRS
• Amendments to IAS 32, Financial Instruments: Disclosure and Presentation, and IAS 39, Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement
• Improvements to Existing IFRS: -- IAS 27, Consolidated Financial Statements and Accounting for Investments in Subsidiaries -- IAS 28, Accounting for Investments in Associates -- Approval of Other Exposure Drafts
• Insurance Contracts
• Reporting Performance
• Share-based Payment

We have posted the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu letters of comment on:

• (46k)
• (13k) Click here for links to Other DTT Comment Letters to IASC/IASB

It includes a commentary: Principles Versus Rules.

 

The chapters cover reinsurance, measurement of direct insurance contracts by policyholders, other assets and liabilities, reporting entity and consolidation, and interim financial reporting. Click here for Project Information.

The first site, publicised with the help of PR Newswire, had 150,000 hits in its first three days. Click for Press Release.