2017

Full Programme for the 7th ANC Symposium on Accounting Research

07 Nov 2017

As already pointed out, the Autorité des Normes Comptables (ANC), the French standard setter, will host its 7th Symposium on Accounting Research on 11 December 2017 in Paris. The full programme for the event, which takes place under the general theme "Accounting and digitalisation", is now available.

Monday 11 December 2017, 9:00 - 18:00

  • Opening remarks
  • Updates and future trends from 2015 and 2016 symposium topics
    • Conceptual Framework: Beyond traditions, a European dynamic?
      • Policy paper
      • Roundtable
      • Address: Is digitalisation a test for Conceptual frameworks?
    • Performance: Is a convergence possible on key indicators?
      • Two policy papers
      • Roundtable
      • Address
  • Risks and gains of digital transformation for accounting standard-setting
    • The digital economy: New paradigms
      • presentation
    • Impact of digitalisation on financial information: New definitions, new ways of publishing, new ways of qualification?
      • Policy paper
      • Roundtable
      • Address on “a framework for a digital reporting”
    • Financial information being tested by the digital economy: New concepts for new transactions?
      • Policy paper
      • Roundtable
      • Address
    • European public good and the accounting challenges of the digital economy
      • Roundtable
  • Closing remarks

Details on the presenters, roundtable participants and speakers are available in the programme on the ANC website.

Updated EFRAG endorsement status report for endorsement advice letter on IFRIC 23

06 Nov 2017

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has updated its Endorsement Status Report to include its endorsement advice letter on IFRIC 23 'Uncertainty Over Income Tax Treatments'.

In the endorsement advice letter to the European Commission, the EFRAG has concluded that IFRIC 23 meets all technical endorsement criteria and is conductive to the European public good. A final en­dorse­ment of IFRIC 17 is currently expected in 2018.

The updated en­dorse­ment status report, dated 6 November 2017, is available here.

Pre-meeting summaries for the November IASB meeting

06 Nov 2017

The IASB will meet at its offices in London on 14 November 2017. We have posted our pre-meeting summaries for the meeting that allow you to follow the IASB’s decision making more closely. For each topic to be discussed we summarise the agenda papers made available by the IASB staff and point out the main issues to be discussed by the IASB and the staff recommendations.

There are four topics on the agenda.

Tuesday 14 November 

The meeting starts with a continuation of the discussion on the Primary Financial Statements. There are three topics at this meeting: presentation of an investing category in the statement(s) of financial performance; definition of finance income/expenses; and better ways to communicate other comprehensive income.

The second topic is a proposal to add a new project called Wider Corporate Reporting. The focus of the project would be a review of the Practice Statement issued in 2010 on Management Commentary. The staff are recommending that the IASB update the Practice Statement to help address the lack of alignment and integration between wider corporate reporting and financial reporting.

The Board published Exposure Draft Improvements IFRS 8 Operating Segments (Proposed amendments to IFRS 8 and IAS 34) in March 2017. The IASB will discuss a summary of the feedback received and the areas the staff think might warrant further analysis. Respondents had mixed views on the proposals. The three main areas the staff plan to focus on in analysing the feedback are the proposed clarifications to help identify the CODM;  linking IFRS 8 segments with other parts of the annual reporting package; and clarifications to the criteria for aggregating segments.

The meeting finishes with a discussion of Dynamic Risk Management. The Staff will present the Board with the objectives of the proposed model for dynamic risk management and an outline of the proposed model. The focus of the model is to reflect how financial institutions manage the dynamic net interest margin resulting from typical banking book assets and liabilities by using derivatives to align the asset profile with the target net interest margin profile.  The staff are recommending that the Board develop a cash flow hedge accounting model for accounting for dynamic risk management.

More information

Our pre-meeting summaries are available on our November meeting note page and will be supplemented with our popular meeting notes after the meeting.

Agenda for the November 2017 DPOC meeting

06 Nov 2017

The Trustees of the IFRS Foundation will be meeting in São Paulo from 7 to 9 November 2017. However, only the meeting of the Due Process Oversight Committee (DPOC) on 7 November will be held in public.

The agenda for the DPOC meeting is summarised below.

Tuesday, 7 November 2017 (13:55–15:10)

  • Introduction and Actions from DPOC meeting held on 23 May 2017
  • Technical activities: Key issues and update
  • Correspondence - Report on complaint about breach of Due Process
  • Implementation activities for the insurance contracts standard
  • Review of activities and functions of Advisory Groups
  • Reporting Protocol: general reports
  • Education material – due process
  • Proposal for review of the Due Process Handbook
  • Correspondence: update
  • Summary

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

November 2017 IASB meeting agenda posted

03 Nov 2017

The IASB has posted the agenda for its next meeting, which will be held at its offices in London on 14 November 2017. There are four topics on the agenda.

The Board will discuss the following:

  • Primary financial state­ments
  • Wider corporate reporting
  • IFRS 8 amendments
  • Dynamic risk man­age­ment

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.

Presentations at ISAR 34

03 Nov 2017

The thirty-fourth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) was held in Geneva on 1-3 November 2017. All presentations from that meeting are now publicly available.

The topics discussed were:

  • Recent developments on financial and non-financial reporting and their implication for the Sustainable Development Goals;
  • Enhancing comparability of sustainability reporting: Selection of core indicators for company reporting on the contribution towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals;
  • The role of disclosure in risk assessment and enhancing the usefulness of corporate reporting in decision-making;
  • Accounting Development Tool implementation experiences; and
  • Accounting and reporting by microenterprises and small and medium-sized as a means towards financial inclusion.

On the day before the ISAR meeting there was a workshop on practical implementation of IPSAS.

We already pointed out the background papers for the two main agenda items discussed during the session (enhancing comparability of sustainability reporting and the role of disclosure in risk assessment and enhancing the usefulness of corporate reporting in decision-making) - they are now also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, and Russian and can be accessed here.

The presentations from the IPSAS workshop and the 34th ISAR session are available here (please note that they are presented in reverse order).

IASB posts webcast on IFRS 17

02 Nov 2017

The IASB has posted a webcast on recognition and derecognition requirements in IFRS 17 'Insurance Contracts'.

The new webcast is part of a series on the implementation of IFRS 17 and can be accessed on the IASB website. Earlier webcasts and webinars on IFRS 17 are available through an archive.

Summary of the October 2017 ITCG meeting

01 Nov 2017

The IASB has published the summary to the IFRS Taxonomy Consultative Group (ITCG) meeting held on 11 October 2017.

The ITCG discussed the following:

  • Update on IFRS Taxonomy ac­tiv­i­ties related to certain publications expected to be issued in November.
  • Proposed new data model for defined benefit plans.
  • Updated on IFRS Taxonomy filing profiles and its future plans for the project.

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

ESMA publishes 21st enforcement decisions report

01 Nov 2017

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published further extracts from its confidential database of enforcement decisions taken by European national enforcers. This batch deals with decisions in relation to IAS 36 (two decisions), IFRS 11/IFRS 10 (two decisions), IFRS 13/IAS 28, IAS 8/IAS 34, IAS 1/IAS 39, IFRS 10, IFRS 13, IAS 39/IAS 37/IAS 18, IAS 12, and IAS 39.

The European national enforcers of financial information monitor and review financial statements published by issuers with securities traded on a regulated European market and who prepare their financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and consider whether they comply with IFRS and other applicable reporting requirements, including relevant national law.

ESMA has developed a confidential database of enforcement decisions taken by individual European enforcers as a source of information to foster appropriate application of IFRS.

The publication of enforcement decisions is designed to inform market participants about which accounting treatments European national enforcers may consider as complying with IFRS, i.e. whether the treatments are considered as being within the accepted range of those permitted by IFRS. ESMA considers the publication of the decisions, together with the rationale behind them, will contribute to a consistent application of IFRS in the European Union.

Topics covered in the latest batch of extracts, covering the period from June 2015 to February 2017, include:

Standard Topic
IAS 36 — Impairment of Assets Country risk premium in impairment test
IFRS 11Joint Arrangements
IFRS 10Consolidated Financial Statements
Assessment of joint control
IFRS 13 Fair Value Measurement
IAS 28 Investments in Associates and Joint Ventures
Valuation and equity method for participation with restrictions
IFRS 11Joint Arrangements
IFRS 10Consolidated Financial Statements
Assessment of joint control
IAS 8Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors
IAS 34Interim Financial Reporting
Restatement of comparative amounts
IAS 1Presentation of Financial Statements
IAS 39Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement
Disclosures on a reverse factoring transaction
IFRS 10Consolidated Financial Statements Assessment of control over investment funds
IFRS 13 Fair Value Measurement Fair value measurement disclosures of unobservable inputs
IAS 39Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement
IAS 37Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets
IAS 18Revenue
Recognition and measurement of the proceeds from an arbitration agreement
IAS 36 — Impairment of Assets Impairment test of trademarks
IAS 12Income taxes Recognition of deferred tax assets for carry forward of unused tax losses
IAS 39Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement Definition of ‘economic environment’ and separation of foreign-currency embedded derivatives in a power contract

Click for access to the full report (link to ESMA website). The ESMA has also published an updated overview of all enforcement decisions ever published.

IPSASB publishes exposure draft on accounting for social benefits

01 Nov 2017

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) has published an exposure draft (ED) to address public sector reporting on social benefits. The proposals aim to improve consistency, transparency, and reporting by public sector entities of social benefit schemes, which account for a large portion of government expenditure in most jurisdictions. Existing IPSAS do not provide requirements or guidance on how to account for social benefits, leaving users without the information needed to assess government performance.

The ED contains two approaches for accounting for social benefits, the obligating event approach and an optional insurance approach that is based on the assumption that some social benefits are similar in practice to insurance contracts.

Entities are permitted, but not required, to use the insurance approach where a social benefit scheme meets certain criteria. The ED does not include requirements for the insurance approach, but directs entities to apply relevant international or national accounting standards by analogy. The ED clarifies this to mean IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts or national standards that have adopted substantially the same principles as IFRS 17.

Please click to access the press release on the IPSASB website. The IPSASB's consultation page offers access to the ED and additional background material.

Comments are requested by 31 March 2018.

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