The outreach round-tables will provide participants a direct opportunity to discuss the proposals in greater detail with the IASB. In order to cover a wide range of views on the topic, the Boards are seeking participation from preparers, auditors, users of financial statements, and others.

Click for:

• More information, including details on regional events, on the IASB website
• IAS Plus article on the Conceptual Framework Discussion Paper
• IAS Plus project page on the IASB’s conceptual framework project
  
  

Sir David was Chairman of the IASB for 10 years and served another decade before that as Chairman of the UK Accounting Standards Board. He overhauled UK GAAP and spearheaded the adoption of IFRS in over 100 countries. Sir David now serves as Chairman of the International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC) Board of Trustees.

The IASB published a short press release on its website about Sir David's induction into the Hall of Fame. A detailed press release can be found on the Ohio State University website.

There have been a number of reports and projects initiated by national standard-setters and others on the topic of disclosure, and in May 2013 the IASB issued a Feedback Statement Discussion Forum – Financial Reporting Disclosure and announced that it would start a short-term initiative to explore opportunities to improve and simplify disclosures.

However, the CFA Institute felt that the investors' perspective has not been sufficiently considered and notes "that such efforts were heavily informed by reports based on interviews, surveys, and the work of preparers, accountants, and auditors rather than investors". Therefore, the CFA Institute initiated its own survey among its members in February 2012, and the report reflects the opinions expressed in 332 valid responses received on a web-based survey. Of these responses roughly 2/3 came from the Americas and roughly 1/6 each from Asia Pacific and Europe/Middle East/Africa.

The results presented in the report suggests that many investors and financial analysts feel that they already have the tools at hand to "cut through the clutter", so reducing the amount of disclosure is not their foremost priority. Rather than trying to develop a disclosure framework aimed at reducing the disclosure overload, the CFA Institute believes that accounting standard-setters should focus on improving presentation in and transparency of financial statements themselves. Many inefficient disclosures would disappear when the underlying financial statements are more effective and disclosures no longer need to compensate for poor presentation.

The CFA Institute report also discusses other ways that standard-setters will need to consider to improve disclosures, such as materiality, technology, cost-benefit analysis, and underlying behavioural elements. (These aspects have of course not been disregarded by the standard-setters, and materiality and behavioural aspects were central points of Hans Hoogervorst's "Breaking the boilerplate" speech given in June 2013 at the IFRS conference in Amsterdam.)

Please click for access to the report on the CFA Institute website.

Traditionally, materiality has been defined through the lens of financial reporting. However, as investors increasingly recognize the financial implications, risks, and opportunities that arise from non-financial social, environmental, and governance issues there is a need to expand the definition of materiality and to apply it also to areas such as climate change, human rights, and board accountability.

Thus materiality is no longer restricted to purely financial indicators or single issues. Rather it is necessary to apply it to all five capitals (manufactured, financial, social, human and natural capital) if reports are to continue to be meaningful communications to investors. In our comment letter on the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) Consultation Draft on integrated reporting, which has the multiple capitals theory at its core, we note: "We believe a better and clearer articulation is required in the Framework on how materiality for an integrated report is distinct from materiality for other reports such as financial reports, and how to handle the tension between application of materiality and achieving conciseness," and in his June 2013 "Breaking the boilerplate" speech, IASB Chairman Hans Hoogervorst maintained that it is necessary to clarify "that the materiality principle does not only mean that material items should be included, but also that it can be better to exclude non-material disclosures."

Therefore, the report made available this week describes the landscape of various global materiality initiatives and provides a framework for CEOs, senior managers, and boards that helps them to:

• discerne which issues are most material to the company, its stakeholders, industry, and the wider operating environment,
• develop appropriate mechanisms and processes that enable continual assessment of material priorities,
• manage materiality, and
• disclose the corresponding performance on a timely and transparent basis.

Please click for the following information on the AccountAbility website:

• Press release
• Redefining Materiality II: Why It Matters, Who’s Involved and What it Means for Corporate Leaders and Boards

In announcing the decision, the MASB noted the following:

While the Board remains committed to maintaining a single set of globally accepted accounting standards for the capital market, it is cognisant of the fact that the IASB’s vigorous due process may at times prolong the project longer than expected. Hence the Board believes extending the transitional period for another year will provide Transitioning Entities adequate time to implement the new Revenue Standard and to avoid the possibility of repetitive substantial restatement in the financial statements in the event the proposed limited-scope improvements to IAS 41 on bearer plants do finally occur as currently anticipated by the Board.

Other entities in Malaysia were required to apply IFRS-compliant standards to annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2012. Click for MASB press release (link to MASB website).

Ms White, a former federal prosecutor, was originally nominated by President Obama to complete former SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro's term and serve a full five-year term as head of the SEC. The US Senate confirmed Ms White as the Chairman of the SEC in April 2013 and confirmed her five-year term extension on 1 August 2013.

Ms White replaced Elisse Walter, who had been serving as SEC Chairman after Ms Schapiro’s resignation in December 2012.

Since 2012 the SOCPA has been working on an IFRS transition project which involves converging national standards with full IFRSs. According to the press release released yesterday, the earliest date for application shall be on financial statements of listed entities prepared for financial periods starting at 1 January 2017. For other entities the earliest date for application shall be on financial statements prepared for financial periods starting at 1 January 2018.

Please click for access to the press release on the SOCPA website. More information on accounting in Saudi Arabia is available on our Saudi Arabia jurisdiction page.

EFRAG appreciates the large number of changes that ED/2013/7 Insurance Contracts shows in comparison with the 2010 ED and supports most of those changes. However, EFRAG also voices some concerns:

• EFRAG believes that the IASB’s proposals in the ED in combination with the classification and measurement requirements in other standards will not help to eliminate accounting mismatches and would result in reporting the insurance performance split across profit or loss and OCI.
• EFRAG also suggests that the IASB should acknowledge the long-term oriented investment business model of insurance activities in the requirements.
• In respect of the proposed measurement and presentation exception, EFRAG voices several concerns (starting point of the proposed ‘mirroring’, scope, measurement basis, and presentation).

Regarding the proposed measurement and presentation exception, EFRAG is currently considering an alternative proposal developed by the insurance industry that might, wholly or partly, address EFRAG's concerns. The alternative is described in an appendix to the draft comment letter, however, EFRAG has not yet formed a view on the approach and has not yet assessed its technical details, operational complexities or conceptual/technical merits.

Please click for the draft comment letter and a corresponding press release on the EFRAG's website. Comments on the draft comment letter are requested by 18 October 2013.

Each update lasts no more than an hour, and sessions are normally held three times a year, approximately at the end of March, July, and November. We intend to make a recording of each session available on IAS Plus for a period of at least four months from the date of the presentation. The topics covered in the July 2013 webcast include:

• a round up of UK corporate reporting news, including the following items which apply for September 2013 year ends:
  • the new narrative reporting regulations, which require companies to prepare a strategic report; and
  • the new regulations that overhaul the reporting of directors’ remuneration;
• the IASB’s exposure draft on accounting for leases; and
• other IASB developments.

To access the recording click here.

The document, entitled Preliminary Board View: Preface to the Conceptual Framework for General Purpose Financial Reporting by Public Sector Entities, identifies that the primary objective of most public sector entities is to deliver services to the public, rather than to make profits and generate a return on equity to investors.

The preface notes discusses the following characteristics of public sector entities:

• The volume and financial significance of non-exchange transactions including involuntary transfers such as the collection of taxation, increasing the importance of the accountability objective of financial reporting
• The importance of the approved budget and information to compare actual spending, revenues and the resulting surplus or deficit with budget estimates
• The nature and purpose of assets in the public sector, which are primarily held to provide services rather than to generate cash flows. In addition, such assets may contribute to the historical and cultural character of a nation or region, or represent areas of natural significance
• The longevity of the public sector and the nature of public sector programs, making the going concern concept difficult to interpret in the public sector context, and resulting in an increased need for information about the long term sustainability of an entity's finances
• The regulatory role of public sector entities, including entities operating in certain sectors of the economy, to address market failures, or to regulate themselves
• Relationship to statistical reporting, and the commonalities and differences between general purpose financial statements (GPFS) and government finance statistics (GFS).

The preliminary preface follows an earlier exposure draft which was issued in April 2011, and will not be finalised until the IPSASB finalises its conceptual framework during 2014. The IPSASB is not formally calling for constituent comment on the preliminary preface, but considered its publication important "because of the importance of the characteristics identified to the future development of IPSASs and RPGs".

Click for access to the preliminary preface (link to IFAC website).

As expected in Japan’s Business Accounting Council report, The Present Policy on the Application of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the index may consider the use of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) in selecting the composition of the index. The primary selection method of the index will consist of two quantitative indicators, which are: (1) corporate performance (capital efficiency) and (2) market liquidity (trading volume, market value, etc.). In addition, “qualitative indicators (matters pertaining to disclosure, etc.)" will also be considered in selection process.

The press release of the outline is available on the Tokyo Stock Exchange website.