The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has released the 2016 edition of Reporting matters. The 2016 research shows that 76% of the leading companies have improved their disclosures on non-financial information since the first WBCSD baseline report in 2013, with materiality disclosures in particular showing the greatest signs of improvement. Nearly a third of companies (31% total) communicate on the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); 42% of organisations take a “digital first” approach to reporting by putting comprehensive sustainability information on the company’s website; and 28% of companies combined their financial and non-financial reporting into annual reports. The report also shows that GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) guidelines remain the most widely used. Please click to access a press release and the full report on the WBCSD website.

The Center for Corporate Reporting (CCR) and the University of Leipzig, Germany have initiated a joint research project on the benefits and challenges of the  implementation of integrated reporting. First results are available in the study How valuable is Integrated Reporting? – Insights from best practice companies. Arguments for and against the implementation of integrated reporting as a management approach include better understanding of value creation, improved risk management and a more holistic view of the entire company as well as embedding integrated thinking in to the corporate strategy and the support of management against increased costs and work effort, new potential risks, and (currently) a lack of vision and leadership skills. Arguments for and against the implementation of integrated reproting as a reporting format include a more efficient reporting process and step-by-step adjusted reporting processes and experiences against a long implementation process before the initial report is published, unclear division of roles and responsibilities, and limited resources and internal resistance to change. Please click to access a press release and the key results on the CCR website.

The winners of the Finance for the Future Awards have been announced. The 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 was 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. The winners in all categories of the awards have been announced on the Finance for the Future website.

The English- and Spanish-language conference will include discussions on the implementation plans for new standards (IFRS 9, IFRS 15, IFRS 16), on the Conceptual Framework, and on implementing for the first time the IFRS for SMEs. There will also be panel discussions on consistent application and on the future of corporate reporting.

Before the conference, a half-day workshop cross-cutting IFRS measurement issues will be held.

More details, including registration information, are available on the conference website (Spanish language only).

Representatives were present from the China Accounting Standard Committee (CASC), Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ), Korea Accounting Standards Board (KASB), and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), together with guests from Hong Kong and Macao.

The meeting saw an update on activities during 2016 und in-depth discussions of leases, financial instruments, and goodwill.

Delegates agreed to continue to follow the work of the IASB and to have more frequent communication among the three countries to contribute to the development of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and to play a leading role in the Asia-Oceania region and to increase the prominence of the Asian-Oceanian Standard Setters Group (AOSSG) in the global accounting standard-setting community.

The next meeting will be held in China in 2017.

Please click for the full communiqué (link to ASBJ website).

The statement, which builds upon the 2014 protocol agreement, provides provisions for supporting the development of IFRSs as well as the consistent implementation and application of IFRSs worldwide.

For more information, see the press release and Statement of Protocol on the IASB’s website.

Tuesday 18 October

In April the IASB considered the general feedback it received on its proposed Practice Statement on materiality. In this meeting it will discuss some of the specific issues raised. Three and a half hours are scheduled.

The Board will continue its discussions on proposed changes to the Conceptual Framework. The topics being discussed are: testing the proposed asset and liability definitions; executory contracts; unit of account; asymmetry in treating gains and losses; and materiality.

Two issues on the planned amendments to the segment reporting requirements, stemming from the post-implementation review of IFRS 8 Segment Reporting, will also be discussed. 

The IASB will also consider the comment period for the Discussion Paper on Principles of Disclosure, the timing of the next interim review of IFRS for SMEs and the planned Feedback Statement on the agenda consultation. 

Wednesday 19 October

The IASB will continue its discussions of the materiality practice statement and the Conceptual Framework, with an additional two hours scheduled for each topic. The IASB has not given any indication of which issues will be discussed on a particular day.

An hour is scheduled for Financial Instruments with the Characteristics of Equity. The focus is on whether economic incentives that are likely to compel an entity to settle an instrument in a particular way should affect whether it is classified as a liability or equity.

The IASB also has a two hour session on implementation issues. It will be asked to ratify an Interpretation on advance consideration in a foreign currency and to propose amendments to how proceeds from testing an asset are recognised. In September the IASB blocked the publication of a draft Interpretation on the interaction between the impairment requirements in IFRS 9 and IAS 28. The staff have brought back a revised proposal to address the matter through an annual improvement. 

The IASB will be given a brief update of its research programme.

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

Although EFRAG has preliminarily concluded that IFRS 16 meets the relevant qualitative characteristics, raises no issues regarding prudent accounting, is not contrary to the true and fair view principle, would improve financial reporting, compared to the standard and the interpretations it replaces, and would not put European entities at a competitive disadvantage taking into account the lack of convergence with the equivalent US GAAP Standard, EFRAG has not yet assessed whether it would reach an acceptable cost-benefit trade-off. Furthermore, during the consultation period, EFRAG will be conducting additional work on the impact of IFRS 16 on SMEs, views of users of financial statements, and the effect analysis of IFRS 16. 

EFRAG is expecting significant additional input into its assessment from this additional work and has not yet reached a preliminary conclusion as to whether IFRS 16 is conducive to European Public Good. Therefore, EFRAG encourages constituents to provide views on any matters that may be relevant to its endorsement advice, which need not be limited to the specific questions included in the consultation document. Comments are requested by 8 December 2016. EFRAG expects to issue a complete draft endorsement advice for an additional short consultation period in 2017.

Please go to the press release on the EFRAG website to access the consultation document and various supporting douments. EFRAG has also updated its IFRS endorsement status report.

The event will provides a forum for those teaching IFRSs to:

• discuss the development of new and amended IFRSs (especially on those IFRS Standards that have been issued but that are not yet effective) with the IASB technical staff;
• discuss the development of recent interpretations and amendments to IFRSs resulting from the annual improvements project with the IFRS Interpretations Committee technical staff;
• be updated by senior IASB technical staff on the main principles being considered in developing major new IFRSs that are on the IASB’s active agenda;
• participate in a workshop on Framework-based IFRS teaching by exploring case studies with the IASB Education Initiative staff; and
• provide feedback to the IASB on providing support to those teaching IFRSs.

Participation in the workshop is free of charge, however, since places are limited there is an application procedure. Please click for more information on the IASB website.

Again, the meeting is only two days, however, the agenda for the meeting is quite full. Focus of the meeting will be the Disclosure initiative project on materiality (over four hours of discussion split between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning) and the Conceptual framework (over three hours of discussion split between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning).

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

The webcast will feature a panel discussion with

• Tarun Jamnadas Ghia, Chairman of the ICAI's Ind AS Implementation Committee,
• Chinnasamy Ganesan, Member of the Committee,
• Sue Lloyd, IASB Member,
• Hugh Shields, IASB Executive Technical Director, and
• Henry Rees, IASB Director of Implementation and Adoption Activities.

Topics will be IFRS 9 Financial Instruments, IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers, and IFRS 16 Leases, as well as the Agenda consultation 2015 and the IASB's future priorities. It will be possible to submit questions to the panel during the webcast.

• Date and time of the webcast: 14 October 2016, 11.30—12.45 IST (07.00—08.15 BST)
• Link to the webcast: http://icai.estv.in/14102016/

The topics discussed were:

• The role of accounting for sustainable development – recent trends and challenges;
• Practical implementation of compliance monitoring and the enforcement of accounting and audit requirements for high-quality reporting;
• Enhancing the role of reporting in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals: Integration of environmental, social and governance information into company reporting; and
• Follow-up on the previous sessions of ISAR:
  • Accounting Development Tool implementation update;
  • Capacity-building for financial inclusion and access of small and medium-sized enterprises to finance; and
  • Updates by international and regional organisations.

Speakers included IASB member Philippe Danjou, representatives from EFRAG, PAFA, ACCA, PIOB, and World Bank, as well as representatives from different sustainability organisations such as A4S, SASB, and CDSB.

All presentations are available on the UNCTAD website.

Please see our earlier news item on the ISAR workshop on IFRS 15 and IFRS 16 on 3 October for the presentations given there.