The Committee will:

• continue discussion of issues arising on IFRS 11, IAS 19, IFRS 5, IAS 12 and IAS 2
• consider finalising tentative agenda decisions on IFRS 12, IAS 16/IAS 2, IAS 16, IAS 21 and IAS 39
• consider new issues on IFRS 10, IAS 32, IAS 21, IAS 12, IAS 28 and IAS 19.

The full agenda for the meeting can be found here. We will update this page for any changes to the agenda, and our Deloitte observer notes from the meeting as they become available.

Professor Barckow is currently Head of Deloitte's IFRS Centre of Excellence in Frankfurt and a member of the Global IFRS Leadership Team (GILT) of Deloitte. He is also member of the IFRS Technical Committee of the ASCG and of the Technical Experts Group (TEG) of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG). Professor Barckow will step down from these committees on assuming his position as ASCG President; his term will begin on 1 March 2015.

“I would like to thank the Nominating Committee and the Administrative Board for the trust they are placing in me and look forward to tackling the new challenges together with Vice-President Peter Mißler and the ASCG's staff. At the same time, I would like to thank my current employer Deloitte for having given me the opportunity to develop my personal skills and professional competencies over the last fourteen years, which I will now bring to the activities of the ASCG in the interest of the German business community,” Professor Barckow declared on accepting the Administrative Board’s vote.

Please click for access to the full press release on the ASCG website.

Related Topics

The framework was developed in a multi-phase project after it was initiated in 2006. Phase 1 dealing with Role and Authority of the Conceptual Framework, Objectives and Users of General Purpose Financial Reporting, Qualitative Characteristics, and Reporting Entity was completed in January 2013. These chapters laid the groundwork completing the other three phases of the project, which saw exposure drafts on Elements in Financial Statements, Recognition in Financial Statements, and Measurement of Assets and Liabilities in Financial Statements in November 2012 and on The Presentation of Information in General Purpose Financial Reports in April 2013.

The exposure drafts have now been finalised and combined into the new framework together with the chapters already issued and a preface discussing the characteristics of public sector entities. The most marked change in comparison with the exposure drafts is that the definitions of elements have been brought closer to the definitions in the the IASB Conceptual Framework.

Especially noteworthy is the fact that 'deferred inflows' and 'deferred outflows' have been dropped from the definitions of the elements of financial statements. Nevertheless, the IPSASB continues to believe that there may be circumstances under which the six elements defined in the framework (assets, liabilities, revenue, expense, ownership contributions, and ownership distributions) may not provide all the information in the financial statements that is necessary to meet users' needs. The chapter on elements therefore states:

In some circumstances, to ensure that the financial statements provide information that is useful for a meaningful assessment of the financial performance and financial position of an entity, recognition of economic phenomena that are not captured by the elements as defined in this Chapter may be necessary. Consequently, the identification of the elements in this Chapter does not preclude IPSASs from requiring or allowing the recognition of resources or obligations that do not satisfy the definition of an element identified in this Chapter [...] when necessary to better achieve the objectives of financial reporting.

The finalised framework will enable the IPSASB to further improve the consistency of its standard-setting by strengthening the linkage between IPSASs and enhance the IPSASB's accountability through improved transparency of the concepts underpinning the development of IPSASs and RPGs.

The new framework can be accessed through the press release on the IPSASB website. The press release also states that the IPSASB will be making decisions on new projects in early 2015.

In June 2014, the EFRAG General Assembly approved the new EFRAG Statutes and EFRAG Internal Rules with an effective date of 31 October and established a temporary Nominating Committee to select and recommend candidates for the new EFRAG Board.

According to the revised EFRAG Internal Rules, the EFRAG Board would be responsible for all technical positions of EFRAG, after having considered the technical advice provided by EFRAG TEG and reflecting the results of EFRAG's due process and must ensure that EFRAG follows open and transparent processes. The EFRAG Board is composed of members belonging to two pillars - eight members each from European Stakeholder Organisations and National Standard Setters.

The Nominating Committee submitted a report to the General Assembly with a proposed composition of the Board. The General Assembly accepted the proposed composition and appointed the following Board members:

• European Stakeholder Organisations:
  • Patrice Marteau, Industrial and trading companies
  • Claes Norberg, Industrial and trading companies
  • Jorge Gil Lozano, Banks
  • Gerard Gil, Banks
  • Benoît Jaspar, Insurance companies
  • Laurence Rivat, Accountancy profession
  • Mark Vaessen, Accountancy profession
  • Hans Buysse, User
• National Standards Setters:
  • Chairman ANC (until the appointment: Michel Barbet-Massin) (France)
  • Liesel Knorr, Chairman ASCG (Germany)
  • Angelo Caso, Chairman OIC (Italy)
  • Roger Marshall, Chairman FRC AC (UK)
  • Stig Enevoldsen, Member DASC (Denmark)
  • Peter Sampers, Incoming Chairman DASB (Netherlands)
  • Erlend Kvaal, Chairman NASB (Norway)
  • Anders Ullberg, Chairman SFRB (Sweden)

The Maystadt report had also recommended including the European Supervisory Authorities and the ECB as members, however, these have declined full membership and will be observers on the new Board.

The General Assembly also appointed Roger Marshall as acting President of the Board until a President is a elected.

Deloitte is pleased that Laurence Rivat has been appointed to the Board. Laurence is Head of the Paris IFRS Centre of Excellence of Deloitte and member of Deloitte's Global IFRS Leadership Team (GILT). She is also a member of the IFRS Interpretations Committee. Deloitte also notes with pleasure, that Stig Enevoldsen, former Deloitte partner, will represent the Danish standard-setter on the new EFRAG Board.

Please click for the press release announcing the appointments on the EFRAG website. The IASB has issued a press release welcoming the appointments.

In particular, the KASB presented issues relating to the equity method, linked presentation, and rate regulated activities - on two of these matters the KASB has recently published research reports.

In connection with the equity method, the KASB discussed the problems of the current IFRS on the equity method and the possible alternatives proposed by the KASB. Regarding rate regulated activities, the KASB explained the current status of the rate regulated industry and related issues as explained in the research report published yesterday.

The two Boards agreed to continue their bilateral cooperation into the future. Please click for the press release published on the KASB website.

The two case studies are available on the IASB website:

• The Open Safari case study which focuses on judgements when accounting for non-financial assets in accordance with the IFRS for SMEs.
• The Amalgam case study which focusses on making judgements when applying the SME hierarchy.

The Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) is updating the existing CDSB Climate Change Reporting Framework, originally released in September 2010, to take account of recent developments in corporate non-financial reporting. As the first consultation draft already demonstrated, the scope of the updated CDSB Framework now encompasses environmental information, in particular natural capital. The updated Framework provides specific guidance on the characterisation, measurement and reporting for GHG emissions, forest risk commodities and water.

The new consultation draft is open for comment until 14 December 2014. Click for more information (link to CDSB website).

The CDSB has also recording a briefing video providing an introduction to the updated CDSB Framework and outlining how to respond to the consultation

In drawing up the report, ESMA relied on information provided by representatives of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as well as other information publicly available.

ESMA notes that the originally phased approach of convergence with IFRSs has been postponed and Ind AS are not yet applicable in India. A transition date has not been formally announced by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). This leads ESMA to identify three major areas of concern with respect to the progress made towards convergence:

• The initial roadmap for implementation of the converged standards by companies has been spread over several years and experienced significant delays. Adoption was finally postponed. A new roadmap issued in 2014 proposes that listed and large entities mandatorily use Ind AS for the preparation of consolidated financial statements from 1 April 2016. However, the roadmap is under the consideration of the MCA and will only be effective after a formal decision of the Indian government. ESMA notes that the adoption timeframe of Ind AS and their exact content remains uncertain.
• The strategy followed by the Indian authorities regarding the convergence process has been to adopt IFRSs as issued by the IASB and modify them for the specific Indian legal and economic context. Consequently, the converged Ind AS have removed a number of options available within IFRS and introduced several compulsory carve-outs, some of which may constitute significant departures from IFRS according to ESMA. (ESMA also notes that he ICAI expressed its commitment to remove these carve outs, when possible.)
• ESMA states that the expertise in India regarding IFRS application and enforcement remains limited. Even though ESMA acknowledges that the ICAI has made a significant effort to prepare auditors and preparers for the implementation of Ind AS, ESMA believes this expertise to be rather of a theoretical nature and of unproven practical value.

Three of the annexes to ESMAs report provide deeper insight and offer an overview of the main differences between the converged Indian standards and IFRS (Annex II), an impact analysis of adopting Ind AS (Annex III), and an overview of the proposed new roadmap (Annex IV).

Please click for access to the report including all annexes on the ESMA website.