In his speech, Mr Hoogervorst commented on what he views as the main lessons learned from IFRS in Europe in the past decade. These three lesson are:

1. The use of IFRS has improved financial reporting and increased transparency throughout the European Union.
2. The co-operative relationship the IASB has develop with Europe has increased level of outreach and stakeholder participation by national standard-setters and others.
3. The decade-long work with Europe shows other jurisdictions that adopting a single set of high quality standards can be achieved globally.

Full transcript of his speech is available on the IASB’s website.

The study reveals that the accounting profession is strongly linked to national economic growth and improved living standards and is estimated to contribute $575 billion annually to the global economy. IFAC concludes:

Professional accountants contribute to better information, reporting, measurement and decision making. When nations have a robust system to track the flow of money in government, within businesses, and between organizations, transparency and accountability are improved, organizations are strengthened, and economies are enhanced.

Please click to access the study Nexus 2: The Accountancy Profession – A Global Value Add on the IFAC website.

The attendees will discuss various topics relating to the projects that are being undertaken by the IASB. Those projects include the Conceptual Framework, the disclosure initiative, revenue, rate regulation and the Agenda Consultation. The IASB representatives will also update the group on recent IFRS progress and strategic developments.

The agenda for the meeting also includes some topical issues raised by member jurisdictions:

• Australia and Korea will share a preliminary outcome of their joint research project, which explores how cultural background and translation affect interpretation of the terms of 'likelihood' that are used in IFRS.
• Japan and Pakistan will provide an update on the progress relating to IFRS adoption.
• Malaysia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka will raise issues of IFRS implementation.

Detailed information on the meeting including a full preliminary agenda is available on the website of the KASB website (please go to "Activities"/"2015 Annual AOSSG Meeting").

In its draft comment letter, EFRAG welcomes the guidance proposed in the draft interpretation, as it will help reduce the identified diversity in practice. EFRAG also agrees with the proposed consensus and believes it is consistent with the underlying principles in IAS 21 The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates.

Please click to access the draft comment letter on the EFRAG website. Comments are requested by 13 January 2016.

Lease

Classification criteria

Under current U.S. GAAP, if the beginning of the lease term occurs within the last 25 percent of the leased property’s total estimated economic life, an entity is not required to evaluate the lease classification criteria related to (1) the lease term in relation to the property’s estimated economic life (the 75 percent test) and (2) the present value of the minimum lease payments in relation to the fair value of the leased property (the 90 percent test). In a previous decision, the FASB had tentatively agreed that under the new leasing guidance, lease classification would be evaluated in accordance with criteria similar to those in IAS 17, Leases, which does not include a similar exception.

The FASB has received feedback indicating that the consequence of not retaining this exception is that leases that begin near the end of an asset’s useful life that otherwise should be classified as operating leases may be classified as finance leases. In response to this concern, the FASB tentatively decided that the final standard will include an exemption from the “lease term is for the major part of the remaining economic life of the underlying asset” classification criterion for leases that begin near the end of the underlying asset’s economic life.

Effective date

For public business entities (PBEs), the new leases standard would be effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2018 (i.e., calendar periods beginning on January 1, 2019), and interim periods therein. For all other entities, the standard would be effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2019 (i.e., calendar periods beginning on January 1, 2020), and interim periods thereafter. Early adoption would be permitted for all entities. Further, an entity’s ability to early adopt the leases standard would not be linked to its adoption of any of the FASB’s other standards.

For more information, see Deloitte’s related journal entry as well as the press release and tentative Board decisions on the FASB’s website.

Classification and measurement

Effective date

For PBEs, the new standard would be effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods therein. For all other entities, including not-for-profit entities and employee benefit plans within the scope of ASC 960 through ASC 965 on plan accounting, the effective date would be in line with the recommendation of the private-company decision-making framework — that is, fiscal years beginning one year after the effective date for PBEs (i.e., December 15, 2018) and interim reporting periods within fiscal years beginning two years after the PBE effective date (i.e., December 15, 2019).

Early adoption would be permitted for all entities, but only with respect to the following changes made to ASC 825:

• For financial liabilities measured under the fair value option, fair value changes resulting from an entity’s own credit would be recognized through other comprehensive income.
• The fair value disclosure requirements for financial instruments not recognized at fair value would be eliminated for non-PBEs.

Non-PBEs may elect to early adopt all the provisions of the final standard once the standard becomes effective for PBEs.

For more information, see Deloitte’s related journal entry as well as the press release and tentative Board decisions on the FASB’s website. In addition, see Deloitte’s February 2, 2015, Heads Up, which outlines key differences between the FASB’s approach and the approach in IFRS 9.

The ASBJ publishes the paper as a contribution to the global debate about the recognition criteria in the Conceptual Framework. In the paper, the ASBJ analyses the need for a probability criterion. The ASBJ concludes that a robust description of such a criterion would be necessary while the use of the critrion is not always necessary. In particular, the ASBJ believes that:

• for the recognition of an asset or a liability that reflects a right or an obligation that results from a transaction, it is not necessary to apply a probability criterion;
• for the recognition of an asset or a liability that reflects a right or an obligation that results from other events, it will be necessary to apply a probability criterion.

Please click to access the discussion paper on the ASBJ website. The first paper in the series, entitled 'Is OCI Unnecessary?' was published in May 2014.

Check out the summaries for the forthcoming discussions on fair value measurement, post-employment benefits, goodwill and impairment, insurance contracts, the research project on share-based payment, and IFRS implementation issues. We have added them to our meeting note page and will supplement them with our popular meeting notes after the meeting.

Topics dis­cussed at the meeting in­cluded:

• Customer options for additional goods and services.
• Pre-production activities.
• Licenses — Specific application issues related to restrictions and renewals.
• Whether fixed-odds wagering contracts are inside or outside the scope of ASC 606.

For more in­for­ma­tion, see De­loitte’s TRG Snap­shot.

The pre­sen­ta­tion will include an overview of the ED and a question and answer session. It will start at 10:00 GMT time and will last ap­prox­i­mately 45 minutes. For more in­for­ma­tion, including how to reg­is­ter, see the IASB's website.