November

Notes from day 4 of the IASB meeting

22 Nov 2008

The International Accounting Standards Board held its November 2008 meeting at the IASB's offices, 30 Cannon Street, London on Tuesday to Friday 18-21 November 2008.

Click here to go to the preliminary and unofficial Notes Taken by Deloitte Observers at the Meeting.

Notes from day 3 of the IASB meeting

21 Nov 2008

The International Accounting Standards Board held its November 2008 meeting at the IASB's offices, 30 Cannon Street, London on Tuesday to Friday 18-21 November 2008.

Click here to go to the preliminary and unofficial Notes Taken by Deloitte Observers at the Meeting.

Notes from day 2 of the IASB meeting

20 Nov 2008

The International Accounting Standards Board held its November 2008 meeting at the IASB's offices, 30 Cannon Street, London on Tuesday to Friday 18-21 November 2008.

Click here to go to the preliminary and unofficial Notes Taken by Deloitte Observers at the Meeting.

Chairman Cox speaks on IFRS in United States

20 Nov 2008

US SEC Chairman Christopher Cox spoke on 'The Future of International Standards and Cooperation in Light of the Credit Crisis' at the FEI 2008 Current Financial Reporting Issues Conference in New York on 18 November 2008. Among other things, Chairman Cox discussed the principles that are critical to the success of IFRSs as 'a uniter of the world's capital markets and a powerful tool for investors everywhere'.

  • First, the standards must be crafted in the interest of investors. That has to be their overarching purpose.
  • The second principle for the success of IFRS is that the standard setting process must be transparent. That is essential not only to maintain investor confidence, but to ensure the integrity and quality of the standards.
  • Third, the standard setter must be independent.
  • The standard setter must also be accountable.
  • All of the stakeholders themselves must participate in the standard setting process in order to ensure the continued success of IFRS.

Chairman Cox also noted:

The fact that today, two-thirds of American investors own securities of foreign companies means that the SEC has an abiding interest in ensuring that IFRS are truly high quality and consistently applied across jurisdictions. Whatever the future of IFRS for US issuers, retail and institutional investors alike in our country are relying upon IFRS today.

Click to view Chairman Cox's speech The Future of International Standards and Cooperation in Light of the Credit Crisis (PDF 45k).

Research report on intangibles

20 Nov 2008

The Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) has published Initial Accounting for Internally Generated Intangible Assets, a discussion paper addressing the inconsistent accounting treatments for intangible.

The discussion paper, authored by staff of the AASB, with the encouragement and support of the group of National Standard Setters (NSS), represents a significant step toward encouraging the International Accounting Standards Board to review its existing accounting standards relating to intangible assets. Currently, accounting standards treat intangible assets acquired as part of a business acquisition differently from the same kind of intangible assets that are internally generated. Comments on this paper are requested by 15 May 2009. The AASB intends that comments received on the paper will provide valuable input into any future work on intangible assets that the IASB might initiate. In December 2007, the IASB rejected an agenda proposal on intangibles. Click for:

A key conclusion of the intangibles research report: From a technical conceptual perspective, internally generated intangible assets should be required to be initially measured at fair value to enhance the decision-usefulness of financial reports. An option to adopt cost as an alternative to fair value should not be allowed. On balance, we also think that this view can be justified on practical grounds. However, we acknowledge the views of some against our conclusion. Accordingly, before our conclusion is considered for implementation, we think that further investigation of the perceived practical impediments is warranted.

Two IAS Plus newsletters in Spanish

19 Nov 2008

Deloitte (Colombia) has published Spanish translations of two English language IAS Plus Special Edition newsletters.

Notes from day 1 of the IASB meeting

19 Nov 2008

The International Accounting Standards Board held its November 2008 meeting at the IASB's offices, 30 Cannon Street, London on Tuesday to Friday 18-21 November 2008.

Click here to go to the preliminary and unofficial Notes Taken by Deloitte Observers at the Meeting.

New valuation standards board is appointed

18 Nov 2008

Over the past year, the overall structure for establishing International Valuation Standards (IVS) has been reorganised. Within the new structure – known as the International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC) – the International Valuation Standards Board (IVSB) is the new body that sets the standards for how to perform and report on valuations. The IVSB replaces the outgoing IVSC Standards Board.

A second body in the new structure is the International Valuation Professional Board (IVPB). The IVPB's responsibilities are to promote the profession generally and to benchmark educational and professional standards for valuation. The members of the new IVSB and IVPB have just been appointed. Also, the outgoing standards board has prepared a transition memo to advise the new board of the status of its current projects and to make recommendations as to future projects and activities, including liaison with the IASB. Click for:

 

Heads Up on US SEC IFRS Roadmap

18 Nov 2008

Deloitte (United States) has published a special issue of the Heads Up newsletter discussing the SEC's proposed IFRS Roadmap. The roadmap outlines certain milestones that, if achieved, could lead to mandatory transition to IFRSs in the United States starting in financial years ending on or after 15 December 2014.

The roadmap also contains proposed rule changes that would give certain US issuers the early option to use IFRSs in financial statements for financial years ending on or after 15 December 2009. Click to download the Heads Up newsletter (PDF 150k).

The proposed roadmap outlines seven milestones

Milestones 1-4 discuss issues that need to be addressed before mandatory adoption of IFRSs:

  • 1. Improvements in accounting standards.
  • 2. Accountability and funding of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation.
  • 3. Improvement in the ability to use interactive data for IFRS reporting.
  • 4. Education and training on IFRSs in the United States.
Milestones 5-7 discuss the transition plan for the mandatory use of IFRSs:
  • 5. Limited early use by eligible entities – This milestone would give roughly 110 US issuers the option of using IFRSs for financial years ending on or after 15 December 2009.
  • 6. Anticipated timing of future rule making by the SEC – On the basis of the progress made on milestones 1-4 and experience gained from milestone 5, the SEC will determine in 2011 whether to require mandatory adoption of IFRSs for all US issuers. Potentially, the option to use IFRSs could also be expanded to other issuers before 2014.
  • 7. Implementation of mandatory use – The roadmap raises many questions, including whether the transition to IFRSs should be phased in. According to the roadmap, large accelerated filers would be required to file IFRS financial statements for financial years ending on or after 15 December 2014, then accelerated filers in 2015, and nonaccelerated filers in 2016.

What's new in financial reporting for December 2008?

17 Nov 2008

Deloitte (Australia) has published 'What's New in Financial Reporting for December 2008?'. This publication provides a high level overview of new and revised financial reporting requirements that need to be considered for periods ending on 31 December 2008.

Entities can use this listing to perform a quick check that all the new financial reporting requirements have been fully considered as part of their December 2008 reporting close process. The information was last updated on 30 October 2008 for developments to that date. Deloitte (Australia) will update this information online if any significant developments occur in the period to 31 March 2009.

The information is organised as follows:

  • overview of the big picture issues for financial reporting at December 2008
  • tables of new and revised accounting pronouncements, categorised as follows:
  • IFRS-equivalent Standards and guidance
  • domestic Standards
  • amending Standards
  • Interpretations
  • pronouncements approved by the IASB/IFRIC where an equivalent pronouncement has not been issued by the AASB Corporations Act 2001 developments
  • other developments

Click to view What's New in Financial Reporting for December 2008? (PDF 172k).

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.