March

IFRS Foundation appoints new Trustee

31 Mar 2016

The IFRS Foundation has announced the appointment of Guillermo Babatz as Trustee of the IFRS Foundation. The appointment will begin on 1 April 2016.

Mr Babatz is Managing Partner at Atik Capital, S.C., and was the former executive chairman of Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV), the Mexican banking and securities commission. Mr Babatz appointment fill one of the two vacancies to represent North America.

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

2016 IFRS XBRL taxonomy issued

31 Mar 2016

The IFRS Foundation has issued its 2016 IFRS Taxonomy. The IFRS Taxonomy is a translation of IFRSs (International Financial Reporting Standards) into XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language).

The IFRS Taxonomy 2016 is consistent with IFRSs as issued by the IASB at 13 January 2016 and incorporates the finalised taxonomy update 1 and the finalised taxonomy update 2, both published by the IFRS Foundation in December 2015. Final changes resulting from the proposed taxonomy update 3 published in January 2016 have been incorporated directly into the IFRS Taxonomy 2016.

On 13 April 2016, the IFRS Taxonomy team is holding a webinar session to answer questions about the IFRS Taxonomy 2016.

For more information, see the press release and the IFRS Taxonomy 2016 page on the IASB's website.

CRD releases materiality statement

30 Mar 2016

The Corporate Reporting Dialogue (CRD), which brings together organisations that have significant international influence on the corporate reporting landscape, has issued a statement that compares the definitions and approaches to materiality by CRD participants.

The statement includes a comparison of materiality from the following organisations:

  • CDP
  • Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB)
  • Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)
  • Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
  • International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)
  • International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC)
  • International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
  • Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)

In October 2015, the IASB published an exposure draft on the concept of materiality, which explains and illustrates the concept of materiality and helps preparers of financial statements when applying the concept.

For more information, see the statement on the CRD’s website.

Finance for the Future Awards include award for communicating integrated thinking

30 Mar 2016

The Finance for the Future Awards, founded by ICAEW and The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S), were first awarded in 2012 to highlight the essential role that finance plays in integrated thinking and building sustainable business models. New this year is an award for ‘Communicating integrated thinking’.

The award is for organisations that are demonstrating clearly, through communicating to their providers of financial capital, how sustainability, in its broadest sense, is embedded into their overall strategy and decision making process and how this ‘integrated thinking’ is contributing to a sustainable business model which delivers long term value. In this context, integrated thinking is seen as coming before reporting with reporting being the end result from this process and a way to communicate progress to the outside world.

In order to be considered for the award, entrants must submit three years of annual reports and financial statements and at least one specific example of communication to demonstrate:

  • How they have communicated to their providers of financial capital that wider factors, such as environmental and social issues, are embedded into their strategy and operations and how they are critical to the long term sustainability of the business, and how this has been done across other types of communications.
  • The communication truly reflects the way the organisation is managed.
  • What role the finance function played in the process of embedding and communicating integrated thinking.
  • Why they believe the communication is beneficial to the organisation.

The Finance for Future awards, which are awarded this year in partnership with Deloitte, are open to all organisations, globally, whether listed, small or public sector. For further information on the awards and how to enter by 13 May click here. A4S has also published a press release on their website.

ESMA publishes report on the activities of accounting enforcers and their findings within the EU in 2015

29 Mar 2016

The report provides an overview of the activities of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the accounting enforcers in the European Economic Area (EEA) when examining compliance of financial information provided by issuers listed on regulated markets with the applicable financial reporting framework in 2015.

Overall, enforcement actions have been taken against a quarter of the issuers included in the sample of 189 issuers. In many cases, enforcement actions cover several areas of the same set of IFRS financial statements. In relation to the application of the new consolidation package, ESMA and the European enforcers acknowledge the good quality of application of IFRS requirements in the 2014 financial statements. ESMA believes that there is still room for improvement in the application of the IAS 12 requirements related to recognition, measurement and disclosures of deferred tax assets arising from tax losses. Therefore, in light of the economic environment as well as of the fact that the examination is performed on a sample basis, where material, these areas will continue to be analysed in 2016.

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

Chief Accountant of the SEC comments on revenue recognition

24 Mar 2016

At an accounting and reporting congress in Philadelphia, Jim Schnurr, Chief Accountant of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), shared some of his thoughts and perspectives on the continuing transition activities for the new revenue standard.

One of the aspects Mr Schnurr elaborated on was the status of the revenue transition resource group (TRG) formed jointly by the IASB and the FASB to keep the standard-setters informed on interpretive issues occurring during implementation of the converged revenue recognition standard and to assist in determining what action may be needed to resolve diversity in practice.

In January this year, the IASB announced that it will no longer attend TRG meetings and stated: "The Board is now of the view that stakeholders need to know that they can continue their implementation process with the confidence that IFRS 15 will not be subject to further changes." The FASB declared in February that it will continue to address implementation issues and has scheduled three TRG meetings for 2016.

On this development, Mr Schnurr commented:

While I am optimistic that the key practice issues that require standard setting have been identified through the implementation activities of preparers, auditors and standard setters, I am concerned that there are still a number of questions that would benefit from the TRG process. [...] Without joint participation of the IASB’s TRG in the coming scheduled FASB TRG meetings, there is a concern that IFRS 15 may be interpreted through a U.S. GAAP lens without the perspective of IFRS preparers.

He even went as far as suggesting that IFRS preparers could "provide input to the FASB staff and the FASB TRG participants to the extent they believe they have important factors that should be considered for discussion by the FASB TRG". At a minimum, he noted, he expected SEC registrants to monitor the TRG discussions and meeting minutes to inform their selection and implementation of reasonable policies.

Please click to access the full text of Mr Schnurr's speech on the SEC website.

IPSASB concludes interview series

24 Mar 2016

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) has released the final instalment of its interview series with Ian Carruthers who took office as new IPSASB Chair on 1 January 2016. In the fifth instalment, Mr Carruthers looks ahead and identifies key priorities for the IPSASB.

Please click to access all interviews on the IPSASB website. They are:

  • What are IPSAS?
  • Why is IPSAS Adoption Important?
  • What are the IPSASB's Key Achievements?
  • What are the IPSASB's Current Areas of Focus?
  • What are Your Key Priorities as IPSASB Chair?

IASB updates editorial corrections

24 Mar 2016

The IASB has published an updated version of the editorial corrections made available on 9 March 2016.

The editorial corrections affect the following individual pronouncements:

  • IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement

The updated editorial corrections can be viewed on the editorial corrections page of the IASB's website.

IASB updates IFRS for SMEs guide

23 Mar 2016

The IASB has updated, “A Guide to the IFRS for SME.” The updated guide is designed to provide a briefing of the IFRS for SMEs for lenders, creditors, and other interested parties.

See A Guide to the IFRS for SMEs booklet on the IASB website.

March 2016 IFRS Interpretations Committee meeting notes posted

23 Mar 2016

The IFRS Interpretations Committee met in London on 22 March 2016. We've posted Deloitte observer notes for the technical issues discussed during this meeting.

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.