ESMA considers the following key topics to be especially relevant for the examinations of listed companies' financial statements:

• impact of financial markets conditions on financial statements;
• statement of cash flows and related disclosures; and
• fair value measurement and related disclosures.

ESMA notes that these topics were chosen based on the recurrence of issues in the application of certain IFRS requirements identified when reviewing financial statements. They are also posing particular challenges in the current economic environment where some reference interest rates and the market prices of a number of commodities have decreased significantly and continue to be highly volatile while some exchange rates have fluctuated significantly.

ESMA and European national enforcers will monitor and supervise the application of the IFRS requirements outlined in the priorities, with national authorities incorporating them into their reviews and taking corrective actions where appropriate. ESMA will collect data on how European listed entities have applied the Priorities and will publish its findings in early 2017.

Please click for the following documents on the ESMA website.

• Press release
• Public statement on enforcement priorities, providing more background on each of the focus areas

The new documents ESMA has prepared to promote the implementation and to contribute to a harmonised EU application are:

• updated questions and answers on the Transparency Directive;
• a new standard form for disclosing the home member state;
• a new standard form for the notification of major holdings; and
• the indicative list of financial instruments subject to notification requirements. 

The documents are available through the press release on the ESMA website.

Meeting activities included the following:

• Executive session— The Trustees discussed a number of important strategic issues:
  • Meeting with the Chinese Assistant Minister of Finance — Prior to the Trustees' meeting there had been a meeting with the Chinese Assistant Minister of Finance which discussed convergence and support for the IFRS Foundation and its work. The meeting was described as having been very encouraging.
  • Strategic overview — The Trustees discussed a proposed framework and suggested success metrics for measuring the Foundation’s performance against its strategic goals. The Trustees commended the staff for its efforts but noted that the proposals focused on seeking to develop measures of the organisation’s effectiveness. The Trustees stressed the need to also look at measures of the organisation’s efficiency, as well as looking at the resources and inputs available to the Foundation.
  • Funding — The Trustees noted that several new jurisdictions have started to fund the Foundation and that several other jurisdictions have increased their contributions. However, there are still jurisdictions that fund below the contribution that might be expected for the size of the economy or that do not fund the Foundation at all. The Trustees also acknowledged and appreciated the efforts that had been made to increase the organisation’s reserves towards the target of a full year’s expense level over the next few years.
  • Communications strategy — The Trustees discussed how the Foundation might better align its communications and stakeholder engagement activities with its strategic goals.
  • International developments — The Trustees were encouraged by the increased voluntary adoption of IFRS in Japan, noted the overall positive outcome of the European Commission’s review of the IAS Regulation and the positive EFRAG endorsement advice on IFRS 9, and discussed the on-going situation with regard to the USA.
• IASB Chairman’s report — The Vice-Chair of the IASB provide the Trustees with an update on a number of the IASB’s technical activities, on behalf of the Chair.
  • Major projects — On insurance contracts, the IASB expects to finish redeliberations until the end of 2015, with the standard itself expected in 2016. The extension of the original timetable means that the mandatory effective date for the standard would be later than that for IFRS 9. Given stakeholders concerns about the implications of this the IASB plans to propose two approaches (the overlay approach and the deferral approach) later in 2015. On leases, the forthcoming standard is currently being drafted and is expected to be published before the end of 2015.
  • Engagement strategy — The IASB's Investors in Financial Reporting programme has received positive reactions, with support from the investment community and others, and will be reviewed at the end of 2015.
  • Use of IFRS globally and consistency of application — The Trustees noted the state of IFRS adoption around the world as evidenced in the IFRS Foundation's jurisdiction profiles. On consistent application, the Trustees were informed of the progress of the work of the transition resource groups on revenue recognition and the impairment of financial instruments. The Trustees were reminded that it is not the IASB’s intention to always establish a transition resource group when a standard is published. Rather, this would be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• Report of the Due Process Oversight Committee (DPOC) — The Trustees received a report about the DPOC’s October 2015 meeting. For more information, see our related news item.
• Stakeholder event — The IFRS Foundation hosted an event 'IFRS and China: Ever-changing Challenges and Opportunities' which saw several speeches and a panel discussion.

The full report on the IFRS Foundation trustees’ meeting is available on the IASB’s website.

Meeting activities included the following:

• Updates on technical activities — The DPOC was presented with a report that outlined the due process activities for all projects on the IASB’s current agenda and questioned the IASB representatives on the Conceptual Framework project (especially around the extended comment deadline), Dynamic risk management (divergence of views between users and preparers), Materiality (practice statement vs. standard), Discount rates (way forward), and High inflation (inactive status of the project).
• Different effective dates of IFRS 9 and the new standard on insurance contracts — The DPOC noted in particular that the views of Board members were very split on proposing the deferral approach, but that there were sufficient votes from the Board to push ahead with the issue of the ED. The DPOC also noted the ‘sunset’ clause included in the proposed deferral approach as this would send out a strong signal that the IASB was determined to complete the insurance contracts project. Lastly, the DPOC approved of the shortened comment period for the ED.
• Agenda consultation — The DPOC noted that the questions asked as part of the agenda consultation were relatively open, which means that considering the feedback, summarising it, and acting on it could be a challenge. The DPOC asked to be provided with a summary of the feedback received and the IASB’s intended reaction.
• IFRS Taxonomy — The DPOC was informed that the trial of integrating proposed taxonomy updates with exposure drafts the IASB publishes had resulted in the highest ever level of response to a proposed change to the IFRS Taxonomy. However, it also showed limited support for the approach. It is now proposed to consult on taxonomy updates at the same time as but not integrated with the standard development.
• Review of Consultative group — The DPOC reviewed various consultative groups (e.g., the TRG, the ITG, and the ITCG) to determine their effectiveness and ultimately concluded that the groups assessed were functioning well.
• Correspondence — No new correspondence has been received since the DPOC’s previous meeting.

The full report on the DPOC meeting is available on the IASB’s website.

The agenda is summarised below:

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