November

IFRS Foundation updates its IFRS Research Centre site

21 Nov 2014

The IFRS Foundation has announced a revamp of its IFRS Research Centre web pages. The updates to the site include a more intuitive layout and new content for evidence-supported standard-setting, research opportunities, research impact, and news and events.

As part of the IASB’s Research Programme, the Research Centre was created to raise awareness with the research community of the work the IASB has done. It contains internal and external intellectual resources, including engagements with the academic community, as well as other resources related to the 2014 IASB Research Forum.

For more information, see the press release on IASB’s website.

November 2014 IFRS Interpretations Committee meeting notes — Part 2

20 Nov 2014

The IFRS Interpretations Committee met in London on 11 November 2014. We've posted the Deloitte observer notes for the sessions on IAS 2, IAS 16, IAS 21, IAS 39, IFRS 10, and IFRS 12.

Summary of the discussions at the second ITCG meeting

20 Nov 2014

The IASB's IFRS Taxonomy Consultative Group (ITCG) held its second meeting on 28 October 2014. The IASB has now published on its website meeting notes from that meeting.

Topics discussed were:

  • Overview of current and future activities
    Activities in the next six months will mainly focus on taxonomy updates for new standards, additional common practice and translations of element labels, trials of the IFRS Taxonomy due process, review of the licensing terms, continued work on the IFRS Taxonomy jurisdictional profiles, and additional education material.
  • Use of the IFRS Taxonomy
    The staff plans to publish a new set of materials covering how to best use the IFRS Taxonomy.
  • Management of entity-specific disclosures
    The staff is assessing whether amendments to the IFRS Taxonomy or supporting materials can be made that would result in better handling of entity specific disclosures.
  • Content review
    The ITCG reviewed proposed amendments to the IFRS Taxonomy in connection with the disclosure initative exposure draft expected to tbe published soon as well as changes to the IFRS Taxonomy resulting from amendments to IFRS 9 and related amendments to IFRS 7.
  • Common practice
    The ITCG members discussed the 2014 Common Practice project, especially common elements that do not fit into the IFRS Taxonomy structure and general or specific elements and undefined terms.
  • Use of the Versioning 1.0 Specification
    The staff reported that specific Versioning 1.0 Specification functionalities such as ‘assignment categories’ and ‘versioning dimensions’ are currently not being used within the IFRS Taxonomy and asked members of the ITCG for their views on the costs and benefits of new functionalities.
  • Updates from ITCG members and observers
    There were reports from ESMA, the SEC, the FASB and on developments in South America, China and Indonesia.

Please click for access to the meeting notes on the IASB website.

Latest edition of EFRAG Insider

19 Nov 2014

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has published a new edition of the publicly available newsletter 'EFRAG Insider'.

16th ESMA enforcement decisions report released

18 Nov 2014

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published further extracts from its confidential database of enforcement decisions taken by European national enforcers. This batch deals with decisions in relation to IAS 1, IAS 7, IAS 12, IAS 16, IAS 18, IAS 32, IAS 36, IAS 38, IAS 40, IFRS 3, IFRS 5, IFRS 6, IFRS 8, and IFRS 13.

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 de­ci­sions, 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, covering the period from August 2012 to March 2014, include:

 

StandardTopic

IAS 1Presentation of Financial Statements
IAS 39Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement
IFRS 7Financial Instruments: Disclosures

Disclosure of forborne loans

IFRS 3Business Combinations
IFRS 13Fair Value Measurement

Fair value of consideration paid in shares

IAS 32Financial Instruments: Presentation

Recognition of a liability payable to equity holders

IAS 7Statement of Cash Flows
IAS 16Property, Plant and Equipment
IAS 18Revenue

Presentation of statement of cash flows

IFRS 5Non-current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations

Presentation of discontinued operations

Presentation of non-current assets held for sale

IAS 12Income Taxes
IFRS 5Non-current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations

Deferred tax assets upon disposal of a subsidiary

IAS 12Income Taxes
IAS 16Property, Plant and Equipment
IAS 40Investment Property

Accounting for the effects of specific tax regime

IAS 36Impairment of Assets

Key assumptions used in the impairment test of goodwill

IAS 38Intangible Assets
IFRS 6Exploration for and Evaluation of Mineral Resources 

Disclosures related to capitalised costs

IFRS 8Operating Segments

Disclosure of major customers

Click for access to the full report (link to ESMA website).

IFRS Foundation appoints two Trustees

18 Nov 2014

The IFRS Foundation has announced the appointments of Alan Beller and Werner Brandt as Trustees of the IFRS Foundation. The appointments will begin on 1 January 2015 and will expire on 31 December 2017.

Mr Alan Beller was Director of the Division of Corporation Finance of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a Senior Counsellor to the SEC from January 2002 until February 2006. Mr Beller's tenure at the SEC saw far-reaching corporate governance, financial disclosure and securities offering reforms, including the implementation of the corporate provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Dr Werner Brandt is the Chairman of the Board of the German Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel (FREP) and was a member of the Board of the Accounting Standards Committee of Germany (DRSC) from 2003 to 2011, in which he played a leading role in defining the future positioning and structure of the DRSC.

For more information, see the press release on the IASB's website.

Agenda for the December 2014 ASAF meeting

18 Nov 2014

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has released the tentative agenda for the meeting of the Accounting Standards Advisory Forum (ASAF), which is to be held at the IASB's offices in London on 4-5 December 2014. The meeting will discuss a number of the IASB's active projects, including the disclosure initiative, leases, insurance contracts, and the upcoming agenda consultation.

The agenda for the meeting is summarised below:

Thursday, 4 December 2014 (9:35-17:15)

  • Disclosure initiative
  • Emissions trading schemes
  • Rate-regulated activities
  • Leases
  • Post-employment benefits
  • Dynamic risk accounting


Friday, 5 December 2014 (9:00-15:25)

  • Equity method of accounting
  • Foreign currency translation
  • Inflation accounting
  • Insurance contracts
  • Current projects and research update
  • 2015 Agenda Consultation
  • Agenda planning and debrief

Agenda papers for the meeting are available on the IASB's website.

2015 IFRS Blue Book — Coming soon

18 Nov 2014

The IFRS Foundation has announced that the '2015 IFRS Consolidated without early application' will be published in December 2014. This volume (nicknamed the "Blue Book") will contain all official pronouncements that are mandatory on 1 January 2015. It does not include IFRSs with an effective date after 1 January 2015. The Blue Book differs from the traditional Bound Volume (the "Red Book"), which includes all pronouncements issued at the publication date, including those that do not become mandatory until a future date.

The Blue Book will sell for £70 plus shipping (academic, developing country, and volume discounts apply). You will find more information and ordering details here.

Japan updates list of 'designated' IFRSs

17 Nov 2014

The Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan has announced that additional IFRSs were designated for use by companies voluntarily applying IFRSs in Japan. The announcement effectively includes all IASB pronouncements issued up to 30 June 2014.

Newly designated IFRSs include:

  • IFRS 14 Regulatory Deferral Accounts;
  • IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers;
  • the amendments bringing bearer plants into the scope of IAS 16;
  • the amendments regarding the clarification of acceptable methods of depreciation and amortisation; and
  • the amendments regarding the accounting for acquisitions of an interest in a joint operation.

Click for the FSA press release (in Japanese only, link to FSA website).

Correction list for hyphenation

These words serve as exceptions. Once entered, they are only hyphenated at the specified hyphenation points. Each word should be on a separate line.