EFRAG is therefore calling for volunteers to participate in such a case study and is seeking the participation of a range of entities involved in providing insurance. The focus of the study is on European insurance groups that apply IFRSs under the provisions of the IAS Regulation.

Expressions of interest are requested by 8 December 2017. Please see the press release on the EFRAG website for more information.

A new project Management commentary (Wider corporate reporting) has been added to the IASB's agenda. The aim of the project is to review and update the Management Commentary Practice Statement issued in 2010 to help address the lack of alignment and integration between wider corporate reporting and financial reporting.

An Accountancy Europe hosted event on 22 Noevember in Brussels saw the launch of a new publication Policy & Reporting: Member State Implementation of the Directive 2014/95/EU, developed by CSR Europe and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) with the support of Accountancy Europe. The publication provides a high-level overview of the similarities and differences in national transposition of the Directive across Europe – including scope, reporting features, auditor’s involvement and fines. The event featured a panel discussion What role does the non-financial reporting play in the future of corporate reporting? Please click access the publication on the Accountancy Europe website.

GRI also announces that Eric Hespenheide, former Deloitte Partner, has been appointed as the Chairman of the GRI Board of Directors, effective 1 January 2018. The press release is available here.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) has agreed to collaborate with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) to strengthen international assurance standards on sustainability reporting. Please see the press release on the WBCSD website.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has released additional national editions of its 2017 Climate Change report analysing data disclosed by companies. Please click through for the individual reports on the CDP website:

• China (in the Chinese language)
• DACH - Germany, Austria, Switzerland (in the German language)
• Ireland
• Korea (in the Korean language)
• United Kingdom

The Committee discussed six issues, including three new interpretation requests.

Finalisation of draft agenda decisions

The Committee consider the public feedback on a request related to IFRS 3 Business Combinations on the acquisition of a group of assets, and decided to finalise the decision not to add to its agenda. However the IASB will monitor this issue and proactively seek feedback from stakeholders on the significance of the issue after the revised definition of a business takes effect.

Continued discussions

In its September 2017 meeting, the IC tentatively decided to add a project to clarify the meaning of the term ‘unavoidable costs’, which is used in the definition of an onerous contract in IAS 37 Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets. The staff recommended that the clarification be by way of an amendment to IAS 37 and that the scope of the project be limited to clarifying the meaning of ‘unavoidable costs’, and not consider broader issues related to identifying or measuring an onerous contract. The Committee agreed with the Staff’s recommendation but decided to leave open what form the clarification should take until the project is more mature.

In its September 2017 meeting, the IC asked the Staff to research into the scope of a potential narrow-scope amendment to IFRS 1 First Time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards with the aim of reducing compliance costs when a subsidiary becomes a first-time adopter later than its parent. The Staff recommended amending IFRS 1 to allow a subsidiary that applies paragraph IFRS 1.D16(a) to measure cumulative translation differences using the amounts reported by the parent based on the parent’s date of transition to IFRS. The Committee supported that recommendation but the Staff will provide further analysis on whether IFRS 1 should require or permit the subsidiary to measure CTD based on the parent’s reported amounts.

New issues

There were three new issues. Two relate to IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers:

• Revenue recognition in a real estate contract that includes the transfer of land
• Right to payment for performance completed to date

The third relates to IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements and IFRS 9 Financial Instruments:

• Presentation of interest revenue for particular financial instruments

For all three issues the Committee tentatively decided not to add the issue to its agenda. The draft Agenda Decisions will be published in IFRIC Update.

Future items

The Staff are analysing requests received on whether a dual currency bond meets the solely payments of principal and interest condition in IFRS 9; whether an instrument for which the notional amount varies depending on the outcome of a transaction can be a hedging instrument applying IFRS 9; and how the initial recognition exemption in paragraphs 15 and 24 of IAS 12 applies to the recognition of right-of-use assets and lease liabilities arising under IFRS 16.

Please click to access the detailed notes taken by Deloitte observers for the entire meeting.

More in­for­ma­tion about the issues is set out below:

Click to access all our comment letters to the IASB, IFRS Foun­da­tion, and IFRS In­ter­pre­ta­tions Committee.

The five questions discussed include:

1. Will IFRS 17 affect dividend payouts?
2. How can a principle-based Standard like IFRS 17 improve comparability between insurers?
3. Will IFRS 17 bring global comparability to the insurance sector?
4. What are the main differences between IFRS 17, regulatory reporting and embedded value reporting?
5. How will removing insurance premiums from the income statement improve comparability?

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

The agenda for the meeting is sum­marised below:

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

The paper states that whilst it is widely acknowledged that transactions with and between members of the same group should not influence the outside appearance of that group and therefore be eliminated, such eliminations do result in a loss of information which is definitely and finally lost for outside users of financial statements. It goes on to note that, furthermore, much of today’s complexity in the environment is not captured in the group’s financial statements although it could highly influence the position, performance and cash flows of the group.

The paper can be accessed on the IASB website.

An agenda for the meeting is not yet available, however, papers are in the process of being posted here.

As reported earlier, a major topic of the meeting was wider corporate reporting and the way forward for the IASB. Please see our detailed summary of that discusssion. (The IASB has just recently added a project to its agenda that seeks to review and update the Management Commentary Practice Statement issued in 2010 to help address the lack of alignment and integration between wider corporate reporting and financial reporting.)

The IFASS members also discussed:

• Cooperation of IFASS participants;
• BCUCC: Mergers & Acquisitions – The premise for separate accounting methods;
• Research on pensions: Hybrid plans; and
• Interpretation issues regaring IAS 24 Related Party Disclosures and IAS 12 Income Taxes.

The next meeting of the IFASS will take place in Mumbai on 12 and 13 April 2018.

Please click for the full report from the meeting.

For banks starting to report under IFRS 9 in 2018, the 2018 EU-wide stress test takes into account the impact of the implementation of IFRS 9 on 1 January 2018 both in terms of starting point and projections.

The stress test exercise will be formally launched in January 2018 and the results to be published by 2 November 2018.

Please click for more information on the EBA website.

Below is an analysis of all changes made to the work plan since our last analysis on 27 October 2017.

Major projects

• A new project Management commentary (Wider corporate reporting) has been added to the IASB's agenda. The aim of the project is to review and update the Management Commentary Practice Statement issued in 2010 to help address the lack of alignment and integration between wider corporate reporting and financial reporting. The next project step will be an exposure draft, however, the Board is still considering the timetable for the publication of the ED.
• Definition of material - feedback on the ED is now expected in February 2018 (was: first quarter of 2018)

Main­te­nance projects

• Improvements arising from the post-implementation review of IFRS 8 — The feedback received on the ED revealed that respondents had mixed views on the proposals, and Board member views were also mixed. It was suggested during the Board's discussions at the November meeting that if the proposals ended up creating more problems, then the Board should consider not finalising them. If it was decided to reject only some of the proposals, the staff should then assess the costs and benefits of proceeding with finalising the remaining proposals. A decision on the project direction is expected in January 2018.

Research projects

• no changes

Other projects

• IFRS Taxonomy update for the annual improvements 2017 — new entry added to work plan. A proposed update is expected in November 2017.

The above is a faithful com­par­i­son of the IASB work plan at 27 October 2017 and at 16 November 2017. For access to the current IASB work plan at any time, please click here.