October

October 2015 IASB meeting agenda posted

09 Oct 2015

The IASB has posted the agenda for its next meeting, which will be held at its offices in London on 20-22 October 2015.

The most significant items on the agenda include:

  • Leases — The staff recommends that the effective date of its leases standard be 1 January 2019 and that early application be permitted (only in conjunction with the new revenue standard); a final standard is still to be issued in December 2015, although a few sweep issues need to be resolved.
  • Insurance — The staff recommends a shortened comment period of 60 days (subject to approval by the Trustees’ Due Process Oversight Committee, which is meeting in Beijing next week); an exposure draft is expected to be issued in December 2015.
  • Disclosure initiative — The Board will revisit cash restrictions (disincentives) but agreed at its September meeting that it would go forward with the project even if it cannot agree on this topic (which would then become part of its project on disclosure principles).

The full agenda for the meeting can be found here. We will post any updates to the agenda, as well as our Deloitte observer notes from the meeting, on this page as they become available.

IASB seeks input on future work plan and priorities

09 Oct 2015

The IASB has released a survey to gather input from investors and analysts about its future work plan and priorities.

The survey, which is part of the IASB’s 2015 agenda consultation, requests feedback on two main topics: (1) the scope of the IASB’s work and (2) the prioritization of topics in the IASB’s future work plan.

The survey ends on 15 December 2015. For more information, including a link to the survey, see the press release on the IASB’s website.

Constituents split over proposed deferral of effective date of September 2014 amendments to IFRS 10 and IAS 28

09 Oct 2015

With the comment period ending today for the IASB's Exposure Draft (ED) of proposed amendments to IFRS 10 and IAS 28 aimed at deferring the effective date of the September 2014 amendments to these standards indefinitely until the research project on the equity method has been concluded, it has become obvious that constituents are split as to whether this proposed deferral should be finalised.

In August 2015 the IASB proposed in ED/2015/7 Effective Date of Amendments to IFRS 10 and IAS 28 deferring the effective date of the 2014 amendments because it wants to deal with a series of issues around IAS 28 - including an identified conflict of the September 2014 amendments with IAS 28  - more comprehensively as part of its research project on the equity method of accounting. The proposed deferral is intended to avoid that entities would need to change the way in which they apply IAS 28 repeatedly in a short period of time.

Constituents arguing against the deferral note that the amendments issued in September 2014 were broadly supported (by the respondents to ED/2012/6) and have fully passed the IASB's due process. They also point out that the September 2014 amendments lead to an increased clarity and the reduction of diversity in practice for the majority of transactions that are in the scope of the amendments while the identified inconsistency in IAS 28.31 only affects a small number of transactions. Among the comment letters not supporting the IASB proposal are those from the standard-setters of Australia, Germany, and New Zealand as well as from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

Constituents arguing for the deferral stress in particular that the deferral is important to enable entities to avoid changing the way in which they apply IAS 28 twice. However, they are split as to whether early application should continue to be permitted which some believing it would help address diversity in practice and some believe it would even increase diversity. All parties agree that if such a deferral is finalised, the IASB needs to prioritise its work on the research project on the equity method and come to conclusions soon. Among the supporters of the deferral are the Canadian, the Korean, and the Spanish standard-setter. In September, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) published a draft comment letter supporting the deferral, however, a final letter has not been published yet.

Please click for access to all comment letters made available publicly so far on the IASB website.

IFRS 15 — ESMA believes the IASB has identified the right issues, calls for clear documentation of impacts of differences between IASB and FASB

08 Oct 2015

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has commented on the IASB exposure draft ED/2015/6 'Clarifications to IFRS 15'.

ESMA agrees with the proposed clarifications to IFRS 15 but regrets regrets that the IASB and FASB were not able to maintain convergence between their standards. Nevertheless, the comment letter states:

ESMA agrees that the IASB identified the right issues that require clarification from the TRG discussions and that no further clarification on the issues for which amendments are proposed by the FASB is required at this stage. [...] Regarding any further standard-setting process related to IFRS 15, unless a major flaw of the standard is identified, any remaining minor issues to be identified by the implementation process could be addressed by referring the issue for consideration to the IFRS Interpretation Committee or to the post-implementation review.

ESMA urges the two Boards to maintain their efforts to keep the standards as convergent as possible and to discuss emerging issues together until the date of mandatory adoption of IFRS 15. Also, ESMA supports the IASB’s decision to include a discussion in the Basis for Conclusions to the ED of the potential impacts on convergence for each of the issues where either the IASB or the FASB have decided to propose different amendments to their respective standards. ESMA urges the IASB to keep track of the differences and clearly communicate them, updating the comparison as the Boards’ proposals are finalised or new differences emerge.

Please click to access the full comment letter on the ESMA website.

GRI publishes second analysis on sustainability and reporting trends in 2025

08 Oct 2015

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has published a second Analysis Paper resulting from its Reporting 2025 Project that is designed to promote an international discussion about the purpose of sustainability reporting and disclosures looking ahead to 2025.

As part of the project, thought leaders in various fields are interviewed on subjects ranging from data technology to society and business development scenarios, with the aim of identifying main issues that will – or should be – at the center of companies' agendas and their public reports. The insights presented in the second paper provide result from the analysis of another 22 interviews. A first paper with the first nine interviews was published in June this year, a final report in January 2016.

The gained from the second round of interviews are:

  • The general context in which we all live and in which businesses operate and decision-makers act will be shaped by well-known challenges.
  • Businesses will need to play a larger role than they do today in the design and implementation of solutions.
  • It is in the interest of companies to engage much further by taking action to find innovative solutions to global challenges.
  • Another important change in the next decade is the development of data technology and digital communication.
  • Coherence and consistency in communications and actions will be the most important building blocks of reputation.

The report then goes on to analyse what these findings mean for companies, business leaders and decision-makers and for reporting and communication.

Please click to access the full report on the GRI website.

Agenda for the November 2015 IFRS Advisory Council meeting

08 Oct 2015

An agenda has been released for the upcoming meeting of the IFRS Advisory Council, which is being held in London on 2-3 November 2015. Highlights of the meeting will be thorough discussions of the Review of structure and effectiveness of the IFRS Foundation and of the Agenda consultation 2015.

A summary of the agenda is set out below:

Monday 2 November 2015

Morning session (09:15-12:30)

  • Welcome and Chairman's introduction
  • Review of structure and effectiveness of the IFRS Foundation – introduction to break-out session
  • Trustee activities

Afternoon session (13:15-17:30)

  • IASB and IFRS Foundation activities
  • Review of structure and effectiveness of the IFRS Foundation – report back from break-out session and plenary discussion
  • IFRS network – exchange with the US Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC)

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Morning session (09:15-12:15)

  • Agenda consultation 2015 – introduction to break-out session
  • Members' communications

Afternoon session (14:00-15:45)

  • Agenda consulation 2015 – report back from break-out session and plenary discussion
  • Sum up discussions

Agenda papers for the meeting will be available in due course on the IASB website.

Agenda published for the October 2015 IFRS Foundation Trustees meeting

07 Oct 2015

The agenda for the public session of the upcoming meeting of the IFRS Foundation Trustees is now available. The Trustees will meet on 15 October 2015 in Beijing.

The agenda for the public session of the meeting is summarised below:

Thursday, 15 October 2015

IFRS Foundation Trustees meeting (12:15–17:15 CST)

  • Report of the Chair of the IFRS Foundation Trustees
  • Report of the IASB Chair
    • Technical work plan overview
    • Agenda Consultation
    • Engagement strategy
    • Use of IFRS globally
    • Consistency in the application of IFRS globally
  • Report of the Due Process Oversight Committee
    • Technical Activities
    • Different effective dates of IFRS 9 and the new standard on insurance contracts: Approval for shortened comment period of an exposure draft
    • Agenda Consultation
    • IFRS Taxonomy: Approval of invitation to comment
    • Consultative groups: Update
    • Correspondence: Update

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

We comment on the proposed deferral of the effective date of amendments to IFRS 10 and IAS 28

06 Oct 2015

We have published our comment letter on the International Accounting Standards Board's (IASB) Exposure Draft ED/2015/7 ‘Effective Date of Amendments to IFRS 10 and IAS 28’.

In our comment letter, we do not object with the proposal to defer the effective date of the amendments to IFRS 10 and IAS 28; however, we note that the issues addressed by the amendments to IFRS 10 and IAS 28 will remain unresolved and encourage the IASB to prioritise its work on the research project on equity accounting to address those issues.

Please click to access the full comment letter.

ESMA final guidelines on alternative performance measures available in all EU languages

06 Oct 2015

The final Guidelines on Alternative Performance Measures (APMs) for listed issuers the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published in June 2015 are now available in all official languages of the European Union.

The guidelines apply to issuers with securities traded on regulated markets, and persons responsible for drawing up a prospectus. They are effective from 3 July 2016. They are now not only available in English but also in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese,  Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, and Swedish. Please click to access the documents on the ESMA website (clicking on the blue "Info" button will open related documents).

Summary of the September 2015 ITCG meeting

05 Oct 2015

The IASB has published notes to the IFRS Taxonomy Consultative Group (ITCG) meeting held on 16 September 2015.

The ITCG discussed the use of dimensions within the tagging of the IFRS Foundation’s financial statements. Specifically, "whether a dimensional or non-dimensional approach should be used for the table note disclosure related to investments and bonds; and whether the 2014 or 2015 annual IFRS Taxonomy should be used." The ITCG members and staff agreed that two sets of XBRL files containing dimensional and non-dimensional approach should be available and that the 2015 annual IFRS Taxonomy should be used.

For more information, see the meeting notes on the IASB 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.