Agenda for the meeting

Sheila Fraser. Ms Fraser is a Chartered Accountant and has served as the Auditor General of Canada from 2001 to 2011. She was also the former Chair of the Canadian Public Sector Accounting Board and is currently a member of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB).

Professor Wiseman Nkulu. Professor Nkulu is a Chartered Accountant currently serving as a chancellor of the University of Pretoria. He was a former Economic Adviser in South Africa, the first Chairman of the Steering Committee and Chief Executive of the Secretartiat of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), a former President of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, a former Chairman of the South African Council of Higher Education and a former President of the International Organization of Employers.

Dr Heidi Miller. Dr Miller has over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, where she held senior executive positions at firms such as JPMorgan Chase & Company, Bank One, Citigroup and Travellers Group.

In a wide-ranging speech covering numerous topics, Commissioner Walter, speaking in her own capacity, discussed the SEC's role in conforming regulations globally within the context of the SEC's mission, where she noted "coordination efforts in some areas take longer than perhaps our foreign counterparts would hope".

In relation to IFRS specifically, Commissioner Walter stated:

... SEC staff from the Office of the Chief Accountant has published its final report on the IFRS Work Plan.  This report has given the Commission much to consider.  While I continue to believe that converged standards are important to serving the interests of investors in the increasingly global capital markets, we cannot incorporate IFRS unless and until we are confident that it will serve U.S. investors well.

Speaking more broadly, Commissioner Walter noted the "Commission cannot take actions in areas merely for the sake of international consistency if it is not the right thing to do for U.S. investors and U.S. markets" but added her belief that "more often than not, what is in the best interest of the U.S. markets and what is in the best interest of the global market will not be mutually exclusive".

Ms Walter also discussed other global regulatory issues such as over-the-counter derivatives, swaps regulation, the proposed unified legal entity identifier system, and monitoring the financial system in the context of automated trading and interconnected markets.

Click for the full text of the speech (link to SEC website).

The European national enforcers of financial information monitor and review financial statements published by issuers with securities traded on a regulated European market and who prepare their financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and consider whether they comply with IFRS and other applicable reporting requirements, including relevant national law.

ESMA has developed a confidential database of enforcement decisions taken by individual European enforcers as a source of information to foster appropriate application of IFRS.

The publication of enforcement decisions is designed to inform market participants about which accounting treatments European national enforcers may consider as complying with IFRS, i.e. whether the treatments are considered as being within the accepted range of those permitted by IFRS.   ESMA considers the publication of the decision, together with the rationale behind them, will contribute to a consistent application of IFRS in the European Union.

Topics covered in the latest batch of extracts, twelfth in the series, include:

Click for access to the full report.

The newsletter contains a summary from the EFRAG meeting held in October 2012 between the EFRAG Technical Expert Group and Consultative Forum of Standard Setters. The topics discussed were:

• The FRC note for the IFRIC’s The Sharman Report and disclosure of material uncertainties under IFRS,
• Update on IAS 28,
• EFRAG operational and due process improvements,
• Update on the latest developments on the proposed EU Accounting Directive,
• IFRIC draft interpretation Put-option written on non-controlling interests,
• Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants paper Toward a Measurement Framework for Financial Reporting by Profit-Orientated Entities,
• Autorité des Normes Comptables paper Proposals for Accounting for GHG Emissions Rights reflecting companies’ business models,
• IASB Review Draft General Hedge Accounting,
• IASB Project Leases, and
• EFRAG’s Proactive Project The Role of the Business Model in Financial Reporting.

Click for the EFRAG Update (link to EFRAG website).

Agenda for the meeting

We support the IFRS Foundation’s change to separate the role of IASB Chair and the Executive Director and commend them for acting quickly to implement the change recommended by both the Trustees’ Strategy Review Report and the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board governance review.

The comment letter notes the following:

[W]e support the changes to the IFRS Foundation's Constitution, subject to our proposed changes that aim to reinforce the separation between the IFRS Foundation Executive Director and the IASB Chair.

Please click for access to our comment letter.

See our previous articles on:

• IFRS Foundation draft review.
• Trustees' Strategy Review Report and Monitoring Board governance review.

The full agenda for the meeting, dated 8 October 2012, can be found here.  We will post any updates to the agenda, and our Deloitte observer notes from the meeting, on this page as they are available.

The updated report reflects that the Accounting Regulatory Committee (ARC) has voted in favour of the adoption of the Amendments to IFRS 1 Government Loans.

Click to download the Endorsement Status Report as of 8 October 2012.

You can find all past endorsement status reports here.