The new requirements address the problem of volatility in profit or loss arising from an issuer choosing to measure its own debt at fair value. This is often referred to as the 'own credit' problem. The IASB decided to maintain the existing amortised cost measurement for most liabilities, limiting change to that required to address the own credit problem. With the new requirements, an entity choosing to measure a liability at fair value will present the portion of the change in its fair value due to changes in the entity's own credit risk in the other comprehensive income (OCI) section of the income statement, rather than within profit or loss.

IFRS 9 applies to financial statements for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2013. Entities are permitted to apply the new requirements in earlier periods, however, if they do, they must also apply the requirements in IFRS 9 that relate to financial assets.

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• IASB press release (PDF 33k)
• IASB feedback statement (PDF 95k)
• IAS Plus summary of IFRS 9 Financial Instruments
• IAS Plus summary of the IASB project to replace IAS 39: Accounting for the impairment of financial assets
• IAS Plus summary of the IASB project to replace IAS 39: Hedge accounting