March

CESR publishes summaries of IFRS enforcement decisions

26 Mar 2009

The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has published its fifth batch of extracts from its confidential database of enforcement decisions taken by EU national enforcers of financial information. From time to time, CESR publishes extracts of selected decisions as a source of information to foster appropriate and consistent application of IFRSs in the EU.

IFRIC 12 on service concessions endorsed for use in the EU

26 Mar 2009

The European Commission has endorsed IFRIC 12 'Service Concession Arrangements' for use in the European Union.

In doing so, however, the mandatory effective date was changed from annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2008 in IFRIC 12 to an entity's first financial year starting after 29 March 2009 in the EU-endorsed version, but with earlier adoption permitted. The endorsed version was published in the Official Journal of 26 March 2009 (PDF 73k).

IFRSs in Argentina starting 2011

26 Mar 2009

On 20 March 2009, the Federación Argentina de Consejos Profesionales de Ciencias Económicas (FACPCE), which is the national accounting standard setter in Argentina, approved the adoption of the IFRSs for the preparation and presentation of financial statements of entities whose debt or equity instruments are traded in a public securities market.

FACPCE's Resolution – Resolución Técnica No 26: Adopción de las NIIF del IASB (PDF 64k) – states that the IFRSs issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), in the oficial Spanish translation issued by the IASB, must be applied – no local adaptations. As a consequence of this Resolution, entities whose securities do not trade in public markets will be permitted to use IFRSs if they choose to do so. The Resolution must be approved by the Comisión Nacional de Valores (CNV, the National Securities Comission), which is expected to do so in the second quarter of 2009. After approval by the CNV, the Resolution will be effective for financial statements for fiscal years starting on 1 January 2011 and for the interim financial statements of those fiscal years. The Resolution would adopt existing IFRSs, but it includes a commitment to adopt all future changes to IFRSs by future Resolutions.

Progress toward IFRSs in Taiwan

26 Mar 2009

In our previous news story, we reported that the Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) announced that it would form a task force to study the adoption of IFRSs in Taiwan.

Adoption details such as the timetable and the scope of applicability would be discussed and recommended by the task force. Since making that announcement the FSC has formed four task forces, dealing separately with:
  1. Translation of IFRSs
  2. IFRS implementation issues
  3. Regulation and governance issues
  4. IFRS promotion and training
Translation pre-work is now under way under the auspices of the standard-setter Accounting Research and Development Foundation. The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) has taken the lead in IFRS implementation issues and has posted a large amount of IFRS-related information on its Website, though only in Chinese. GreTai Securities Market (Taiwan's over-the-counter market) is leading IFRS promotion and training. Jointly, the TSE and GreTai are sponsoring a series of seminars to promote the implementation of IFRSs. A decision on when IFRSs might be made mandatory has not yet been made, though it is expected to be around 2012 to 2014. The FSC is expect to announce a roadmap fairly soon.

Click for our 29 October 2008 news story.

EFRAG TEG appointments

25 Mar 2009

The Supervisory Board of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has approved the re-appointment for one-year terms ending 31 March 2010, of the six members of the Technical Expert Group (TEG) up for rotation (marked with * below). It has also appointed a new member, Professor Araceli Mora, for two years.

Here is the composition of the TEG as of 1 April 2009:

Voting members:

  • Stig Enevoldsen, Auditor, Denmark - EFRAG TEG Chair
  • Francoise Flores, Industry, France - EFRAG TEG Vice-Chair
  • Mike Ashley*, Auditor, member of the UK ASB
  • Alan Dangerfield*, Industry, Switzerland
  • Catherine Guttmann*, Insurance Advisor, France
  • Roberto Monachino, Banking specialist, Italy
  • Araceli Mora, Professor, Spain
  • Hans Schoen*, former Auditor, The Netherlands
  • Thomas Seeberg*, Industry, Germany
  • Anna Sirocka, Auditor, Poland
  • Michael Starkie*, Industry, UK
  • Carsten Zielke, User, Germany

Non-voting members:

  • Liesel Knorr – German Accounting Standards Board
  • Jean-Francois Lepetit – French CNC (standard setter)
  • Ian Mackintosh – UK Accounting Standards Board

 

Chinese translations of newsletters on recent amendments to IFRSs

25 Mar 2009

Deloitte China has published Chinese translations of two 'IAS Plus Update' newsletters on recent amendments to IFRSs:

Notes from day 2 of the IASB-FASB joint meeting

25 Mar 2009

The IASB and the US FASB held a joint meeting at the IASB's offices in London on Monday and Tuesday, 23 and 24 March 2009.

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

FEE views on dynamic loan loss provisioning

25 Mar 2009

FEE, the Federation of European Accountants, has published a policy statement on dynamic loan loss provisioning for financial instruments.

FEE's main messages are:
  • If regulators allow entities to set up a dynamic provision for regulatory purposes, then part of non-distributable reserves in equity in the general purpose financial statements could be allocated as a buffer with proper note disclosures that the amount is determined in the prudential returns (by the regulatory rules);
  • FEE is not supportive of any form of dynamic provisioning in general purpose financial statements affecting net assets or performance measures of the reporting entity;
  • FEE encourages the IASB to provide further educative guidance and explanation as to how to conservatively apply IAS 39 for incurred losses since the incurred loss model is not equally applied by users in various territories;
  • Any more fundamental change of general purpose financial reporting should be subject to in depth discussions and consultation, and the full due process would need to be followed;
  • Any changes to financial reporting should be made at a global level to IFRSs to support comparability and maintain a level playing field.

Click to download the FEE Policy Statement: Dynamic Provisioning for Financial Instruments (PDF 270k).

IASC Foundation publishes briefing for chief executives

25 Mar 2009

The IASC Foundation has published the 2009 edition of 'IFRSs–A Briefing for Chief Executives, Audit Committees and Boards of Directors'.

These briefing notes provide summaries of all IFRSs issued at 1 January 2009 in non-technical language. It's specially prepared for senior non-financial executives, members of audit committees, company directors and others who want a broad overview of IFRSs and of the business implications of implementing them. Printed copies may be purchased from the IASCF Online Shop for £19 plus postage, with discounts available for academics/students, middle income and low income countries, and for multiple copies. The IASCF has mailed printed copies to its comprehensive subscribers. An electronic PDF version is available to eIFRS and comprehensive subscribers.

 

CEBS finds no improvement in bank transparency

25 Mar 2009

A study by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) about banks' transparency about exposures affected by the financial crisis concludes that the 'disclosures made by 19 banks in their last quarter (4Q) and preliminary year-end (YE) reports do not show significant improvements compared to the information provided in the 2008 interim results'.

There is still 'room for improvement' in qualitative disclosures about business models and risk management. And the study found that quantitative disclosures by some banks were 'somewhat less detailed than previously'. Click to download the report (PDF 125k).

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