June

EFRAG to celebrate 15th anniversary

17 Jun 2016

On 6 July 2016, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) will hold a celebration event and seminar to mark its 15th anniversary and welcome its new leadership: the incoming EFRAG Board President Jean-Paul Gauzès and Andrew Watchman, EFRAG TEG Chairman and CEO.

Programme highlights include:

  • Welcome speech by Andrew Watchman, EFRAG TEG Chairman
  • Keynote speech by Commissioner Jonathan Hill
  • Round-Table: Developing effect analyses for IFRS
    • Facilitated by Claes Norberg, EFRAG Board with participation of
    • Hans Hoogervorst, IASB;
    • Erik Nooteboom, EC;
    • Kris Peach, AASB;
    • Patrick de Cambourg, ANC;
    • Joachim Gassen, Professor at Humboldt University Berlin;
    • Vickie Wood, UK representative at ARC
  • Round-Table: Financial reporting by small listed companies
    • Facilitated by Olivier Boutellis-Taft, FEE with the participation of
    • Michel Prada, IFRS Foundation;
    • Roger Marshall, EFRAG Board;
    • Peter Malmqvist, Swedish Society of Financial Analysts;
    • Andrew Watchman, EFRAG
  • Closing speech by Jean-Paul Gauzès, incoming EFRAG Board President

IAS Plus representatives have been invited to attend the event and we will provide you with notes from the discussions afterwards.

FASB issues new standard on impairment of financial instruments

16 Jun 2016

The FASB has issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2016-13, "Financial Instruments — Credit Losses," which amends the Board's guidance on the impairment of financial instruments.

The ASU adds to U.S. GAAP a new impairment model (known as the current expected credit loss (CECL) model) that is based on expected losses rather than incurred losses. Under the CECL model, an entity recognizes as an allowance its estimate of expected credit losses, which the FASB believes will result in more timely recognition of such losses. The ASU is also intended to reduce the complexity of U.S. GAAP by decreasing the number of credit impairment models that entities use to account for debt instruments.

Until June 2012, the FASB and IASB jointly deliberated an expected-loss impairment model, which was broadly similar to the impairment approach in IFRS 9, Financial Instruments, issued by the IASB in 2014. In response to feedback from U.S. constituents on the joint model, however, the FASB decided to develop an alternative expected credit loss model. Accordingly, the FASB’s new credit impairment approach differs from that under IFRSs. Although both impairment models are based on expected credit losses, the FASB’s impairment model would require entities to recognize current expected credit losses for all assets, not just those for which there has been a significant increase in credit risk since initial recognition.

For more information, see Deloitte's Heads Up newsletter as well as the press release, FASB in Focus newsletter, ASU, cost-benefit analysis, and video discussion by Hal Schroeder, Marc Siegel, and Russ Golden on the FASB’s Web site.

Agenda for the July 2016 ASAF meeting

16 Jun 2016

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has released an agenda for the meeting of the Accounting Standards Advisory Forum (ASAF), which is to be held at the IASB's offices in London on 7-8 July 2016.

The agenda for the meeting is sum­marised below:


Thursday, 7 July 2016 (11:30-18:00)
  • Conceptual framework:
    • Liabilities — Concepts to support the liability definition.
    • Recognition — Low probability of a flow of economic benefits.
  • Financial instruments with the characteristics of equity.
  • Disclosure initiative — Materiality practice statement — Identification of primary users, their information needs and expectations as well as the judgement process.
  • Primary financial statements:
    • Scope.
    • Statement of cash flows — Discussion of the FRC staff paper on the statement of cash flows.


Friday, 8 July 2016 (9:00-14:45)

  • 2015 agenda consultation — Draft work plan and strategy.
  • Quantitative study on goodwill and impairment — Review of results from research by the Accounting Standards Board of Japan and European Financial Reporting Advisory Group.
  • Amendments to IAS 8 — Distinction between changes in accounting policies and changes in accounting estimates.
  • Project updates and agenda planning.

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

IFRS Foundation appoints new SME Implementation Group members

15 Jun 2016

The IFRS Foundation has announced the appointment of eleven new members to the SME Implementation Group. The appointments will begin on 1 July 2016.

New appointments include:

Ago Vilu Estonia Country Managing Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Bee Leng Tan Malaysia Executive Director, Malaysian Accounting Standards Board
Carlos Manual Llobet San Nicolas Venezuela Partner, Llobet, Lugo & Associados
Daniel Sarmiento Pavas Colombia Consejero, Consejo Tecnico de la contaduria publica
Kelly Wayne Karmazin United States Partner, Seim Johnson LLP
Marta Cristina Pelucio Grecco Brazil Managing Partner, Praesum International Accounting
Paul Thompson Global Director, Global Accountancy Profession Support, International Federation of Accountants
Rakesh Latchana Guyana Partner, Ram & McRae
Raymond Betserayi Chamboko Zimbabwe and South Africa Director and Head of Advisory, W Technical Consulting SA
Ulla Stenfors Sweden Accounting Expert, Swedish Accounting Standards Board
Wayne Robert Twigg South Africa Managing Member, Twigg

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

IASB posts webinar on principles of disclosure project

14 Jun 2016

The IASB has posted a webinar that provides an overview of the disclosure initiative and discusses the upcoming discussion paper on principles of disclosures, which is expected to be issued by the end of 2016.

The webinar is hosted by the IASB’s senior technical manager Suzanne Morsfield and assistant technical manager Arjuna Dangalla.

For more in­for­ma­tion, see the webinar page on the IASB’s website.

IFRS conference in Nairobi announced

13 Jun 2016

The IFRS Foundation has announced an IFRS conference in Nairobi on 24-26 August 2016. The conference will be hosted jointly by the IFRS Foundation, the Pan African Federation of Accountants (PAFA), and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK). As pre-conference programme there will be a workshop on the IFRS for SMEs.

The conference itself will cover the following:

  • Speech by IASB Chairman Hans Hoogervorst on the future of financial reporting
  • Key note address
  • IASB update
  • Break-out sessions on implementing new IFRSs (IFRS 9 IFRS 15, Agriculture)
  • Panel discussion on IFRS application issues
  • Break-out sessions on IASB projects:
    • Disclosure initiative
    • Conceptual Framework
    • Extractive activities
  • Break-out sessions on IFRS application issues:
    • Implementing IFRS 16 Leases
    • IFRS regulatory issues
    • Rate-regulated activities
  • Coping with disruptive technology and information overload

More details are available on the IASB website.

June 2016 IASB meeting agenda posted

10 Jun 2016

The IASB has posted the agenda for its next meeting, which will be held at its offices in London on 20 and 22 June 2016.

The meeting will feature  a joint session with the FASB to discuss the progress of the goodwill and impairment project. In addition, the IASB will discuss insurance contracts, conceptual framework, and IFRS implementation issues.

The full agenda for the meeting and first pre-meet­ing summaries can be found here. We will post any updates to the agenda, as well as the remaining pre-meet­ing summaries as well as observer notes from the meeting, on this page as they become available.

IFRS Foundation issues Formula Linkbase 2016

10 Jun 2016

The IFRS Foundation has issued the 2016 IFRS Taxonomy Formula Linkbase. The Formula Linkbase is updated from the 2015 version; it is designed to help improve the data quality of IFRS Taxonomy filings and to provide additional guidance for both technical and financial reporting audiences so that they can better understand the IFRS concepts and their meanings.

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

IFRS Foundation Trustees hold May 2016 meeting

10 Jun 2016

The IFRS Foundation Trustees met in Jakarta on 24–26 May 2016.

Meeting activities included the following:

  • Executive session — The Trustees discussed a number of important strategic issues:
    • Review of structure and effectiveness of the IFRS Foundation — The Trustees extensively discussed and concluded their review of structure and effectiveness of the IFRS Foundation (see separate news item).  
    • Agenda consultation — The Trustees were updated on the progress on the Board’s Agenda Consultation, in particular the key messages received from respondents and how these messages, as well as those received on the Trustees’ review, had been used to develop a draft work plan for the board for the period 2017-2021.
    • Presentation on IFRS in Indonesia — The Trustees received a presentation on the status of IFRSs in Indonesia.
    • Insurance contracts — The Trustees received a presentation on the forthcoming standard.
    • Other issues.
    • Committee reports — The Trustees discussed reports from the Audit and Finance Committee, the Education and Content Services Committee, the Human Capital Committee, and the Nominating Committee.
  • IASB Chairman’s report — The Chair of the IASB provided the Trustees with an update on a number of the IASB’s technical activities with special focus on the 2015 Agenda consultation and consistent application of IFRSs around the world.
  • Report of the Due Process Oversight Committee (DPOC) — The Trustees received a report about the DPOC’s May 2016 meeting. For more information, see our related news item.
  • Events in Jakarta — The report especially notes the stakeholder event and the signing of the joint agreement with Indonesian authorities.

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

Trustees conclude 2015 Constitution review

10 Jun 2016

The Trustees of the IFRS Foundation have concluded the 2015 review of structure and effectiveness of the IFRS Foundation that was officially launched on 7 July 2015 by publishing a request for views. As the Trustees were convinced that the last strategy review (2010-2012) already covered many issues that would be part of a constitution review, they limited the review to three strategic areas: Relevance of IFRS, Consistent application of IFRS, and Governance and financing of the IFRS Foundation.

On Relevance, the Trustees intend to accelerate work to address barriers to high-quality digital reporting by collaborating with investors, securities regulators and others to ensure the IFRS Taxonomy remains fit for purpose. They will also establish a network of experts to provide advice on technological innovation and its impact and relevance to IFRS Standards. The Trustees have also decided to retain the existing focus of the Board on for-profit entities, with no expansion at this time to cover either the public sector or the private not-for-profit sector.

Regarding Consistent application, there will be an increased emphasis on activities to support the consistent application, additional resources and materials will be developed to assist the consistent implementation, and the Trustees will continue to develop relationships with securities regulators to support implementation of IFRSs around the world.

Governance and financing will see no change to the current three-tier structure, but steps will be taken to enhance visibility of Trustee oversight of the Board. The geographical distribution of both the Trustees and the Board will be changed by combining the North American and South American allocations into a single ‘Americas’ category, and the size of the Board will be reduced to 13 members, with the flexibility to appoint a 14th member if appropriate. The Trustees will maintain the current funding model until the funding regime based on publicly supported financing is fully achieved.

The following additional information is available on the IASB website:

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