The disclosures are based on IFRSs issued at 31 October 2008 and effective for years beginning on or after 1 January 2008. The statements are not intended to include 'model' disclosures covering all circumstances but, rather, to indicate the type of disclosure required. The nature and amount of disclosure will depend on the underlying business, the extent and complexity of financial instruments and insurance contracts, and how they are managed. Special references are made to disclosures that might be associated with the credit crunch and the recent IASB pronouncements on financial instruments, but further specific consideration by insurers will be needed. A copy of Deloitte's disclosure checklist for IFRS 4 and IFRS 7 is included at the end of the document. Click to download Delto Insurance Group plc – Illustrative Financial Statements and Selected Disclosures for the Year Ended 31 December 2008 (PDF 676k). There's a permanent link on our Model Financial Statements Page.

 

Focusing on Hong Kong, mainland China, and South Korea and taking the perspective of the investor, the study discusses the nature and motivation of these transactions and identifies circumstances where related party transactions have compromised minority shareholders. The study explores the effectiveness of current regulations aimed at protecting shareholders' interests and offers the following recommendations to protect investors:

• Investor vigilance: Investors should try to engage controlling shareholders when transactions are disclosed and they should be more vigilant in examining them when they are put up for a vote.
• Effective approval and disclosure: Upon determination of fairness by an independent advisor, transactions should be approved by 'disinterested' directors and disclosed to investors in a timely manner. If a transaction is material, it should also be approved by shareholders.
• Corporate board independence: In situations where managers are also majority shareholders, independent directors have a greater onus in exercising their duties to protect the interests of independent shareholders.
• Greater transparency: Companies should voluntarily disclose the identities and the level of ownership of related parties, and also the policies in place to monitor and report such related party transactions.
• Statutory backing of regulations: Given the extent of losses minority shareholders could suffer from abusive transactions, one assurance that their interests are protected is to make companies legally liable when they violate regulations.

The IASB is currently working on a Project to enhance the relevance of related party disclosures under IAS 24 Related Party Disclosures. The study was co-authored by Lee Kha Loon, CFA, and Abe De Ramos, both of the CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity. We have posted it here with the kind permission of the authors. Click for:

• CFA Institute Study on Related-Party Transactions (PDF 812k)
• CFA Institute Press Release (PDF 42k)

 

You can access the agenda on our February 2009 IASB meeting page. We will also post Deloitte observer notes on this page as they are available.

There is related information on our XBRL Page. The table below summarises the phase-in of requirements for XBRL data.

 

Phase-In Group	Periods* Ending on or After
Domestic and foreign registrants using U.S. GAAP that have a worldwide public float of more than $5 billion	15 June 2009
All other domestic and foreign large accelerated filers using U.S. GAAP	15 June 2010
All remaining registrants using U.S. GAAP and foreign private issuers using IFRSs as issued by the IASB	15 June 2011
*Generally, an entity's first interactive data submission will be included as an exhibit to a quarterly report on Form 10-Q, or an annual report on Form 20-F or Form 40-F, as applicable.

Click to view the Heads Up newsletter (PDF 92k).

The newsletter discusses a proposal, published by the IASB on 30 January 2009, to amend IFRIC 9 Reassessment of Embedded Derivatives and IFRIC 16 Hedges of a Net Investment in a Foreign Operation as follows:

• IFRIC 9: To exclude from its scope embedded derivatives in contracts acquired in common control transactions or in the formation of a joint venture
• IFRIC 16: To allow entities to designate as a hedging instrument in a hedge of a net investment in a foreign operation an instrument that is held by the foreign operation that is being hedged

 

The survey is based on interviews with senior security officers from the world's top global financial institutions in 32 countries. Findings include:

• As in previous surveys, respondents recognise that people are both an organisations greatest asset as well as its weakest link. But security vigilance is even more important in hard economic times, when the increased stress levels can lead people to behave in atypical ways.
• Even though both internal and external security breaches at financial institutions worldwide have fallen over the past 12 months, employee misconduct is a growing concern.
• The growing popularity of social networks and the proliferation of mobile media such as USB keys, MP3 players and PDAs, all cause an extra load on internal and external security. These devices present opportunities for unauthorised download and storage of confidential information in an unprotected medium. This is one of the factors that has contributed to the sudden rise of data protection and information leakage as a top priority for financial institutions – tied at second place with access and identity management.
• The top three information security priorities of financial institutions are:
  • security regulatory compliance
  • data protection and information leakage
  • access and identity management
• In 2008, financial institutions saw a decline in the number of both external (47% vs. 65% in 2007) and internal (27% vs. 30% in 2007) security breaches.
• The leading drivers for financial institutions to protect the privacy of their clients information are privacy regulatory requirements (79%) followed by reputation and brand concerns (70%).

Click to download Deloitte GFSI's 6th Annual Global Security Survey (PDF 2,032k).

 

The timetable calls for publication by the IASB of 19 consultation documents and 26 final pronouncements between 2009 and 2011, including:

• 4 discussion papers
• 15 exposure drafts
• 24 final IFRSs
• 1 final guidance document
• 1 final Conceptual Framework chapter

 

This book – the first of a three-volume series – covers IFRS 2, IFRS 3, IFRS 5, IAS 2, IAS 12, IAS 18, IAS 20, IAS 27, IAS 28, IAS 31, and IAS 38. In explaining each Standard, the booklet includes a few examples and condensed analysis of GAAP difference between IFRSs and Republic of China GAAP. Volumes two and three are expected to be published in May and July to cover substantially all of the remaining IFRSs. You can purchase the book by email to .

 

Mr Veron, a research fellow at European 'think tank' Breugel, argues that global solidarity on economic issues is probably out of reach. Instead, the goal should be more modest – to maintain an open economy in which all players have a chance to succeed. Mr Veron suggests that 'fair global competition entails in the short term a curb on domestic preference policies.... It also rests on harmonised international rules in key areas of regulation.' Click to download the article, titled Global Crisis: Global Solutions? (PDF 45k), which we have posted with the kind permission of the author. An excerpt:

The crisis has also put international accounting standards, known as IFRS, in the dock. The IASB, which sets them, was slow off the mark and then overly cowed by political pressure. The prospects for IFRS adoption in the US seem distant once again.

Besides, common standards only serve a purpose if their implementation on the ground is consistent, which is currently far from being the case.

Finally, trust crucially rests on credible supervision of the clutch of global private intermediaries whose role is paramount for the whole system. For these, self-regulation is no longer enough to foster confidence.

While many IAS Plus visitors access the e-Learning by clicking on the portlet on our home page, some visitors have put the URL (web address) in their web browser's 'bookmarks' or 'favorites'. Please note, from 15 February 2009, the web address for Deloitte's IFRS e-Learning will be changing to http://www.deloitteifrslearning.com. Please ensure that your bookmarks or favorites are updated with the new address, as the old address will stop working on 15 February.