March 2017 IASB meeting notes posted
23 Mar 2017
The IASB met at its offices in London on 21 and 22 March 2017. We have posted our comprehensive Deloitte observer notes for all projects discussed during the meeting.
The IASB considered corporate reporting more broadly. Until now the IASB has been monitoring developments in corporate reporting, including integrated reporting, sustainability and the recent work on climate-related disclosures, and cooperating with other bodies. The Board decided to take a more active role in thinking about broader corporate reporting issues. As a first step, the IASB will investigate whether it should review and update its Practice Statement on Management Commentary.
The IASB had a brief session to review its work on goodwill and impairment, primarily for information and planning purposes.
The IASB reviewed its work on discount rates, one of its research projects. The project is now closed, with no further work required other than to ensure that the analysis is properly documented, preserved on the IASB’s website and referred to by staff on other projects. This does not prevent the IASB discussing low and negative interest rates, which it plans to do later in 2017.
The IASB continued its discussions on Primary Financial Statements. The Board supported the staff recommendation that entities be required to have a subtotal in the income statement for EBIT. They know that this will require future discussion of what constitutes finance income and expense from ordinary activities and how earnings from associates fits in. The Board is also considering requiring entities to present in the income statement a management operating performance measure, with each entity using their own definition. The papers also discussed the general aggregation principles.
The IASB concluded its public discussions on the Conceptual Framework. Entities that have relied on the Framework to develop policies for regulatory account balances be required to continue to use the existing Framework until they apply the future Standard on rate-regulated activities.
There was a brief oral update on the Insurance Contracts project. The post-ballot drafts have been circulated internally and the staff expect to publish the new Standard in the second half of May 2017.
On Wednesday, the IASB had an education session on Dynamic Risk Management. The staff plan is to have the IASB identify a preferred model by about October 2017, which would then be developed further.
The financial instruments with the characteristics of equity project wrapped up its current phase. The IASB discussed how the proposed model would apply to derivatives in an entity’s own equity in a group scenario when the functional currency of the parent differs from that of the subsidiary. They will also assess the implications of the model for other Standards, particularly IFRS 2 Share-based Payments and IAS 33 Earnings per Share. The next step is the preparation of the Discussion Paper, which the staff expect to be published towards the end of 2017.
Please click to access the detailed notes taken by Deloitte observers for the entire meeting.