Tuesday 17 July

Rate-regulated Activities

At this meeting the Board will discuss the staff’s recommendations for the measurement of regulatory assets that are recognised in the model as well as the staff’s initial views on a high-level presentation and disclosure objective for the model and possible presentation formats for the statement(s) of financial performance.

Management Commentary

The staff will provide an update on the project to revise the Management Commentary Practice Statement. The membership of the Management Commentary Consultative Group was announced on 10 July 2018. An Exposure Draft for a revised Practice Statement can be expected in 2020.

Business Combinations under Common Control

The staff will give an oral update of the project.

Conceptual Framework

This session focuses on when and how preparers of financial statements should refer to the new Conceptual Framework for assistance in developing accounting policies. The paper includes some analysis but not any recommendations.

Implementation

The Board will be asked for feedback on the proposal of the IFRS Interpretations Committee to propose narrow-scope amendments to IAS 37 to specify that the ‘cost of fulfilling’ a contract comprises the ‘costs that relate directly to the contract’.

In January 2018 the IASB discussed commodity loans and related transactions, including cryptocurrencies. The staff are recommending that the Board consider the feasibility of a narrow-scope project to address commodity loans. However, they recommend that the Board not do any more work at this time on developing an investment standard. They recommend that the Interpretations Committee be asked to consider how an entity should apply existing IFRS requirements to holdings of cryptocurrencies and ICOs.

Wednesday 18 July

Goodwill and Impairment

The Board will consider how to focus its work on the Goodwill and Impairment research project.

Disclosure Initiative

This session covers five topics: Definition of Material; Targeted Standards-level Review of Disclosures – Guidance for the Board – Drafting Disclosure Requirements; Accounting Policy Disclosure; Location of Information; Technology and Digital Reporting Considerations.

• The staff are recommending that the Board complete the proposal to amend the definition of material so as to make the changes effective for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2020.
• In relation to the guidance for the Board on how to draft disclosure requirements, the recommendations relate to when to use prescriptive language and ways to improve consistency of wording. They also have recommendations about how to organise the disclosure requirements within a Standard. The staff are recommending that the Board use IAS 19 Employee Benefits and IFRS 13 Fair Value Measurement to test the new approach.
• The staff are recommending that the Board amend IAS 1:117 – 124 to require entities to disclose their material accounting policies rather than their significant accounting policies and develop related guidance and examples for inclusion in the Materiality Practice Statement.
• The staff are recommending that the Board not develop requirements about IFRS information outside the financial statements or non-IFRS information inside the financial statements.
• The staff are recommending that the Board include relevant considerations in the Guidance for the Board to use when developing and drafting disclosure objectives and requirements but to consider the broader implications of technology on financial reporting as part of the IFRS Foundation’s Technology Initiative.

Accounting Policies and Accounting Estimates

This session is to update the Board of progress on its Exposure Draft Accounting Policies and Accounting Estimates (Proposed amendments to IAS 8). While some respondents to the ED said the proposed amendments would improve clarity others questioned whether the benefits of finalising the proposed amendments would outweigh the costs of doing so. The staff have consulted with the Accounting Standards Advisory Forum and, as a next step, will seek the advice of the IFRS Interpretations Committee.

Emerging Economies Group Update

The meeting concludes with an update of the most recent meeting of the IASB’s Emerging Economies Group.

More information

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