Changes to the work plan include:

Major projects

• No changes made to major projects.

Im­ple­men­ta­tion projects

• Annual Improvements (2015-2017): Updated to indicate that a decision on the direction of the project is now expected within 3 months; previously it was within 6 months.
• Remeasurement at a Plan Amendment, Curtailment or Settlement / Availability of a Refund of a Surplus from a Defined Benefit Plan: Updated to indicate that a decision on the direction of the project is now expected within 3 months; previously it was within 6 months.
• Draft IFRIC Interpretation — Uncertainty over Income Tax Treatment: Updated to indicate that a decision on the direction of the project is now expected within 3 months; previously it was within 6 months.
• Draft IFRIC In­ter­pre­ta­tion — Foreign Currency Trans­ac­tions and Advance Con­sid­er­a­tion: Updated to indicate that a final interpretation is expected within 6 months; prviously it was after 6 months.

In addition, the work plan makes clear that exposure drafts on the definition of a business and on the remeasurement of previously held interests are to be expected next week since the work plan still states that these will come out in June (which ends next week).

Finally, the IASB has updated the details of the primary financial statements research project indicating that initial research will focus on:

• the structure and content of the statement(s) of financial performance;
• the potential demand for changes to the statement of cash flows and the statement of financial position; and
• the implications of digital reporting for the structure and content of the primary financial statements.

The revised IASB work plan is available on the IASB's website.

Specifically, the changes to the IFRS Taxonomy due process are:

• “[T]he Board will review and approve IFRS Taxonomy content where it reflects new or amended IFRS Standards.”
• “[A] newly established IFRS Taxonomy Review Panel of three-to-five Board members will review the IFRS Taxonomy common practice content.”
• “[T]he drafting and approval of each Proposed IFRS Taxonomy Update will take place at the same time that the related IFRS Standard is finalized.”
• “[T]he role of the IFRS Taxonomy Consultative Group will be formalised within the due process.”

The updated Due Process Handbook also incorporates an amendment approved by the DPOC to extend the interval between the Board’s Agenda Consultations from three-to-five years, a change proposed by the Board as part of its 2015 Agenda Consultation.

For more information, see the press release, feedback statement, and Due Process Handbook page on the IASB’s Web site.

The Directive entered into force on 20 July 2013 and was required to be implemented into the law of EU member states by 20 July 2015. It was aimed at reducing unnecessary and disproportionate administrative costs on small companies by simplifying the preparation of financial statements and reducing the amount of information required by small companies in the notes to financial statements. The Directive contains a significant number of member state options so that implementation can differ between member states.

The EFAA report focuses on whether the implementation has resulted in the creation of a harmonised European accounting framework. It reflects the results of an EFAA survey of its members in eight EU member states.

The report identifies some areas in which the countries surveyed have implemented the Directive in a similar way, in particular through the creation of a reduced disclosure regime for micro-entities. However, the main findings of the report point to the notable differences between member states’ implementation of the Directive. The report also highlights the lessened transparency of financial information about SMEs that is now available to the public as a result of reduced disclosure following implementation of the Directive.

Please click here to access the full report The New Accounting Directive: A Harmonised European Accounting Framework? on the EFAA website.

Please click through for direct access to the notes:

Monday, 20 June 2016

• Goodwill and impairment — progress reports (IASB-FASB meeting)

Wednesday, 22 June 2016

• Insurance contracts
• IFRS implementation issues
• Conceptual framework

You can also access the preliminary and unofficial notes taken by Deloitte observers for the entire meeting.

Mr Kabureck focused on the following key aspects:

• The importance of a robust conceptual framework.
• An understanding that rules will not be able to cover all situations.
• Use of reasonable judgement in the decision making process.
• Comparability in the application in accounting rules and the benefit to primary users of financial statements.

For more information, see the article on the IASB’s Web site.

The new members will initially serve a five-year term with the possibility of being renewed for another three years. Nom­i­na­tions for IASB board mem­ber­ship close on 8 July 2016. For more information, see the press release on the IASB’s Web site.

The AASB/KASB project uses the different terms of 'likelihood' that are used in IFRSs to trace the influences of cultural background and translation. The key findings arrived at so far are that translation aspects can influence accounting judgment and that the IASB should give considerable attention to how terms might be interpreted and translated in different jurisdictions when developing a standard.

In its Contribution of the ANC to the questions raised by KASB and AASB on their joint research project, the French standard-setter agrees with the findings and adds that the process of translation does not only refer to translation between languages but also to the understanding of expressions in different cultures that seemingly use the same language. The ANC also extends this comment to countries using IFRSs in English (for example if funds/processes for translation are not available or if it is thought easier to work with the pronouncements issued in the language they were set in) and notes that this would hold true even if IFRS were written in relatively simple English.

In a more general and philosophical observation at the end of its contribution, which cites a range from resources from Herodotus over Wilhelm von Humboldt to the UN Charter, the ANC turns to cultural identities that are determined not only by language but also by race, colour, sex, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status and notes that not only do these aspects determine how a language is understood but also that individuals’ thoughts and thinking are in some ways structured by the language used.

The ANC expresses the firm belief that one of the key question IFRSs will have to face is how to deal with the intercultural differences in order to ensure IFRS are consistently applied worldwide and concludes:

In a context where the IASB and the IFRS Foundation are developing a single set of IFRS standards to be applied around the world, ANC considers that the main difficulty is to issue principles and standards homogeneously understood and implemented. To reach this objective, IASB should rely on a process acknowledging and taking into account the underlying requirements and limits of cultural identities. In our view and in practice, the bias resulting from cultural diversity between the IFRS Foundation constituent should anticipated and integrated [... and ...] be considered from inception and all levels such as: At research level, at staff level (when preparing agenda papers, exposure drafts and standards ), at Board ’s or IFRS IC’s meetings.

Please click to download the contribution from the ANC website.

On Monday 20 June the IASB will be joined by video by the FASB for a joint education session, their first joint meeting since September 2015. The focus of the sessions is their work on business combinations, following on from their respective post-implementation reviews of their converged standards. Both boards have projects focusing on the goodwill and intangible assets recognised in a business combination.

On Wednesday 22 June the IASB will discuss three topics. They will continue their consideration of comments on the Conceptual Framework exposure draft, focusing on profit or loss and other comprehensive income (OCI). They will also consider some matters that have emerged during the drafting of the new insurance contracts standard. Because they are being brought back after the staff were given permission to prepare the draft for review by the Board they are called sweep issues. And finally, they will consider a recommendation from the IFRS Interpretations Committee to make a minor amendment to IAS 12 Income Taxes.

Our pre-meeting summaries are available on our meeting note page and will sup­ple­ment them with our popular meeting notes after the meeting.

The Global Public Policy Committee (GPPC)¹ have issued a report titled The implementation of IFRS 9 impairment requirements by banks.

The paper is addressed primarily to the audit committees of systemically-important banks, although much of its content will be relevant to other banks and financial institutions, and aims to promote the implementation of accounting for expected credit losses to a high standard.

The paper is structured in a way to assist the two key groups within a bank that will be instrumental in ensuring a high-quality implementation of IFRS 9:

• Those charged with governance, who will oversee implementation. Section 1 of the paper addresses the key areas of focus for this group, such as governance and controls, sophistication and proportionality and transition issues.
• Those finance, risk management, IT and other executives who are charged with implementing the new requirements. Section 2 of the paper discusses key components of implementing expected credit loss accounting, including expected credit loss methodology, default, probability of default, exposure, loss given default, discounting, staging assessment, macro-economic forecasts and forward-looking information.

Please click to access The implementation of IFRS 9 impairment requirements by banks and a corresponding press release.