January

IASCF conferences in Zurich and Singapore

31 Jan 2007

The IASC Foundation will hold conferences on IFRSs in Zurich and Singapore.

  • Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 May 2007 at the Swissotel Zurich, Switzerland
  • Wednesday 29 and Thursday 30 August 2007 at the Grand Hyatt, Singapore
Special interest workshops will be held on the first day of each conference. They will cover US market Update, IFRSs teaching and research. insurance contracts, IFRS for SMEs, IFRIC Update (Singapore only), and EU Market Update (Zurich only).

EFRAG tentatively agrees to endorse IFRIC 12

30 Jan 2007

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) held a special meeting on 23 January 2007 at which it discussed its draft endorsement advice on IFRIC 12 Service Concession Arrangements.

At the end of the discussion, EFRAG members voted 5 to 4, with 3 abstentions, in favour of issuing a positive draft endorsement advice. A draft endorsement letter, with a basis for conclusions and views from the dissenters, will be published for comment in the next week, with a comment deadline around the end of February.
Click for IAS Plus IFRIC 12 page.

Updated EFRAG endorsement status report

30 Jan 2007

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group has updated its report showing the status of endorsement, under the EU Accounting Regulation, of each IFRS, including standards, interpretations, and amendments.

Click to download the Endorsement Status Report as of 19 January 2007 (PDF 35k). You can always find a link on our EFRAG Page. Currently, the following IASB pronouncements have not yet been endorsed for use in Europe:
  • IFRS 8 Operating Segments
  • IFRIC 12 Service Concession Arrangements
  • IFRIC 11 IFRS 2: Group and Treasury Share Transactions
  • IFRIC 10 Interim Financial Reporting and Impairment
The EC Accounting Regulatory Committee (ARC) is expected to vote on endorsement of IFRS 8 and IFRICs 10 and 11 at its meeting on 2 February 2007, with EC endorsement expected in May or June 2007. The ARC will vote on IFRIC 12 at its meeting on 16 March 2007, with EC endorsement expected in June or July 2007.

Survey on accrual accounting by European governments

30 Jan 2007

The European Federation of Accountants (FEE) has published a study reporting on the progress made by European countries in implementing accrual accounting in the public sector.

The three major findings are:
  • Approximately 80% of the countries that responded have adopted some form of accrual accounting across the full range and size of public bodies.
  • While some countries have made rapid progress in implementing accrual accounting, some others are currently in transition and a smaller group are still using cash accounting.
  • Most commonly, the transition is made first at the local level and only later at the national government level.
The study cites the following benefits of accrual accounting:

Accrual accounting facilitates better planning, management and decision making as well as providing a means with which to assess financial resilience. It can also assist better performance measurement and therefore performance management. So accrual accounting provides scope for organisations to manage their finances more effectively. It can permit more effective comparisons of some aspects of financial performance between different government departments and agencies as well as international comparisons. Comparison between government services for the purposes of competitive tendering as well as pre and post privatisation can also be made more readily if both sets of financial statements are prepared on the same basis.

Click for:

Hans-Georg Bruns will retire from IASB

29 Jan 2007

Hans-Georg Bruns will retire from the IASB on 30 June 2007. Dr Bruns is one of the original members of the IASB and has served for six years.

Mr Bruns was the chief accounting officer of Daimler Chrysler and a professor of the University of Stuttgart. He has been instrumental in developing strong relationships with both governments and stakeholders across the European Union. The IASC Foundation will begin the process of seeking candidates to fill the vacancy left by Dr Bruns's retirement, together with a part-time IASB position, in line with its normal appointment procedures.

Click for Press Release (PDF 45k).

 

Securities regulation in global markets

29 Jan 2007

US SEC Chairman Christopher Cox spoke about Re-Thinking Regulation in the Era of Global Securities Markets at the 34th Annual Securities Regulation Institute.

Here is a Link to the Full Text of Chairman Cox's remarks. Below is an excerpt dealing with financial reporting standards.

...Rapidly advancing technology stands to upend the conventional wisdom by providing us with an unexpected way to deal with these differences. In the same way the experienced traveler uses a dictionary to navigate between languages in which the same thought is expressed in two different ways, interactive data can give us a way to translate between accounting languages in which the same set of data is presented in different ways. And so, perhaps, we'll one day reach a point where it doesn't matter whether a company's financials are stated using US GAAP, or International Financial Reporting Standards. In fact, it may turn out that each individual investor can decide that the data should speak a language uniquely his or her own....

It's impossible to overstate the potential of interactive data for the globalization of markets. Whether or not the nations of the world ever come to agree on every accounting convention or financial reporting rule, interactive data holds the power to reconcile our differences, quickly and efficiently, so that we can use the disclosures that government requires knowledgeably and meaningfully. And after all, that's the real purpose of securities regulation in the first place.

New Global Offerings Services newsletter

28 Jan 2007

We have posted the December 2006 Edition of the Deloitte Global Offerings Services Newsletter.

Global Offerings Services is a global team of Deloitte practitioners assisting non-US companies and non-US practice office engagement teams in applying US and International accounting standards (that is, US GAAP and IFRSs) and in complying with the SEC's financial reporting rules. The GOs Newsletter (PDF 135k) is an update on relevant GAAP, regulatory, and other matters, webcasts, and publications. Past GOs Newsletters are Here.

Notes from day three of January 2007 IASB meeting

26 Jan 2007

The International Accounting Standards Board held its January 2007 Board meeting at its offices, 30 Cannon Street, London, on Tuesday through Thursday 23-25 January 2007.

We have combined the preliminary and unofficial notes taken by Deloitte observers at the meeting on our January 2007 IASB Meeting Page.

IASB proposes first-time adoption amendments

25 Jan 2007

The IASB has published an Exposure Draft proposing exemptions from the requirements of IFRSs when they are adopted for the first time.

The Exposure Draft would amend IFRS 1 First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards.

The proposals respond to concerns about difficulties encountered by parent companies in measuring the cost of an investment in a subsidiary on adopting IFRSs.

At present, IFRSs require a parent to measure an investment in a subsidiary either at its cost or at fair value. In some circumstances a parent is unable to determine cost in accordance with IFRSs but is deterred from using fair value to account for the investment by the subsequent need to measure the investment at each reporting date.

The Exposure Draft proposes to allow a parent to use a 'deemed cost' to measure its investment in subsidiaries when it first adopts IFRSs. This deemed cost can be determined by reference to the parent's investment in the net assets of the subsidiary or the fair value of the parent's investment.

In addition, the proposals would alleviate the need to restate the pre-acquisition accumulated profits of the subsidiary in accordance with IFRSs for the purposes of classifying dividends.

Comment deadline is 27 April 2007. Click for Press Release (PDF 52k).

 

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