During its October meeting, the Board discussed criteria the IASB staff have developed for the Board to apply in assessing whether a concern warrants considering an amendment as well as 25 concerns/issues identfied by the staff. In a podcast released today, IASB member Darrel Scott noted that first decision making in this context is expected in 1-2 months. This is not reflected in the updated work plan yet.

Below is an analysis of all changes that were made to the work plan since our last analysis on 25 September 2018.

Maintenance projects

• Accounting Policies and Accounting Estimates (Amendments to IAS 8) — A decision on the project direction is now expected in December 2018 (was: October 2018)
• Definition of a business (Amendments to IFRS 3) — As the amendments were published on 22 October 2018, this has been removed from the work plan

Research projects

• Disclosure initiative — Principles of disclosure — A project summary is now expected in the first quarter of 2019 (no date given before)

Other projects

• IFRS Taxonomy update — 2018 general improvements — A proposed update is expected in December 2018 (was: fourth quarter of 2018)

The above is a faithful comparison of the IASB work plan at 25 September 2018 and at 26 October 2018. For access to the current IASB work plan at any time, please click here.

The podcast features IASB Board member Darrel Scott interviewed by IASB technical manager Roberta Ravelli. The interview is not so much about the details discussed by the Board but more of a general and balanced assessment where the Board currently stands. During the meeting, the Board first discussed the criteria the IASB staff have developed for the Board to apply in assessing whether a concern warrants considering an amendment and then used these criteria in a kind of a test run against the 25 concerns/issues identfied by the staff. However, no decisions were made.

By way of an outlook, Darrel Scott mentions in the interview that first decision making of the IASB is expected in 1-2 months (the November meeting is rather early in the month and the deadline for the staff to submit papers would be at the end of next week). He also mentions that the Board would need to think about the effective date - and the implications discussing the effective date would have - soon.

The podcast can be accessed through the press release on the IASB website.

For the Primary Financial Statements project, the focus was on the labels the Board will use to describe subtotals. The Board decided that the labels be operating profit or loss; operating profit or loss and share of profit or loss of integral associates and joint ventures; and profit or loss before financing and income tax (with entities being prohibited from using the term ‘EBIT’ for this subtotal).

The Board supported a recommendation by the IFRS Interpretations Committee that the IASB amend IAS 12 Income Taxes in relation to the initial recognition of a lease, by a lessee, and decommissioning obligations. 

The staff gave an oral update on the Management Commentary project, reporting on the first meeting of the Consultative Group supporting the project.

The Board decided to revise the Preface to International Financial Reporting Standards, removing redundant material on the structure of the IASB and its due process requirements.

For the Disclosure Initiative, the focus was on accounting policies. The Board decided to clarify that not all accounting policies relating to material transactions, other events or conditions are material. They also decided to develop guidance and examples for inclusion in the Materiality Practice Statement to help entities apply effective judgement when deciding whether accounting policies are material.

The Board discussed IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts, to help it determine how it should respond to concerns that have been brought to its attention regarding this Standard (the papers include a description of 25 identified concerns). The Board decided on the criteria to apply in assessing whether, in each case, it should propose an amendment to IFRS 17. The staff will bring the 25 items back to future meetings, assessed against those criteria.

The staff gave an update on the Rate-regulated Activities project.

The staff presented their proposed outline for a Discussion Paper on Goodwill and Impairment. The main sections would focus on improving disclosures, simplifying the impairment test, and simplifying the accounting for goodwill. The Board expressed concerns about the proposed timetable, which was for the DP to be published in the first half of 2020, and asked the staff to accelerate that process.

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

In his response to the ESA's letter, the EFRAG President refers to EFRAG's letter regarding IFRS 17 sent to the IASB in September and explains that EFRAG is now waiting for the IASB's reaction. If the IASB decides not to re-open IFRS 17, EFRAG will proceed with developing a draft and then a final endorsement advice on IFRS 17. If the IASB decides to re-open IFRS 17, EFRAG will suspend the development of an endorsement advice for the duration of the IASB's redeliberations and contribute to the IASB's due process during that period.

Please click to access the EFRAG letter to the ESAs on the EFRAG website.

The two days will see the presentation of six academic papers, followed either by a response of an academic and an IASB/AASB representative or by a panel discussion. In both cases, the audience will be invited to participate in the discussion. The papers are the following (all links to the IASB website):

• Non-GAAP Earnings and the Earnings Quality Trade-off
• Disclosure Overload? An Empirical Analysis of IFRS Disclosure Requirements
• Equity Financial Assets: A Tool for Earnings Management – A Case Study of Youngor Group
• Accounting for Intangibles: Can Capitalization of R&D Reduce Real Effects and Improve Investment Efficiency?
• Extractive Industries Reporting: A Research Review
• Independently-certified Industry-specific Disclosures to the Capital Market: The JORC Code in the Australian Mining Industry

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

The meeting saw presentations on:

• Accounting reform of Korea
• Challenges for intangible assets reporting
• Business combinations under common control
• Virtual currencies

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

The two main topics for the meeting are:

• Enhancing the comparability of sustainability reporting: Selection of core indicators for entity reporting on the contribution towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals
• Issues of practical implementation of international standards of accounting and reporting in the public and private sectors

The background papers for these two topics plus UNCTAD guidance on core indicators for entity reporting on the contribution towards the attainment of the sustainable development goals are available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish, and Russian and can be accessed here.

Speakers at ISAR 35 include Michel Prada, former Chairman of the Trustees of the IFRS Foundation, Amaro Gomes, IASB member, representatives of AOSSG, EFRAG, GLASS, and PAFA, as well as representatives of IOSCO, IPSASB, CDSB, HLEG, IIRC, and ACCA. Their presentations are currently being posted here.

The workshop before the ISAR meeting this year focused on "Digital currencies and blockchain: implications for accounting“. Speakers included representatives of the Australian standard-setter AASB and the Japanese standard-setter ASBJ who are both conducting research in the area of digital currencies. All presentations from the workshop are available here.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has released the 2018 edition of Reporting matters. This year’s report aims to show how companies are linking reporting and decision-making through three topic-specific addendum reports focused on climate change, water and human rights. The press release on the WBCSD website offers a summary of the key findings and access to the full report.

The United Nation's Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, have initiated a collaboration to raise environmental, social, and governance standards across emerging capital markets. The goal is to help build investor trust, attract capital, and grow strong local capital markets. Please see the press release on the SSE website.

The SSE has also released a new report focusing on how securities regulators can help promote the sustainable development goals. With 35 examples from 19 markets, the report provides a snapshot of what is happening around the world today. The report is available on the SSE website.

Another report released by the SSE is its biennial report on progress documenting a steep increase in a number of sustainability activities at stock exchanges. The report is available on the SSE website.

The Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) has published a report on how India is responding to sustainability challenges. The report compares India’s sustainability reporting practices with those of China and OECD countries, with a focus on the differences in disclosure channels, obligations and subjects disclosed. Please click to access the report on the CDSB website.

The Pan-African Federation of Accountants (PAFA) is conducting a survey to gain a sense of where people think sustainability is currently integrated into the continuous professional development and continuous professional education of the professional accountant. Please click to access the survey on the PAFA website.

The study looks at IFRSs from Sharia'a, Islamic accounting, and Islamic finance accounting perspective and stresses the information needs of Shari'ah conscious users of financial statements. The authors, both of whom are from Pakistan, primarily cover Islamic finance accounting but also include general accounting observations and unique aspects of Sharia'a based reporting.

An electronic version of the 200 page study can be accessed free of charge on the AAOIFI website.

The IFRS Foundation expects to issue stand-alone modules for each section of the 2015 IFRS for SMEs Standard (35 in total). This is the third batch of modules released by the Foundation; the first three modules were posted in April 2018, another seven modules were announced in August. The eight new modules released since August cover the following topics:

• Statement of Financial Position
• Notes to the Financial Statements
• Investments in Associates
• Investments in Joint Ventures
• Government Grants
• Borrowing Costs
• Impairment of Assets
• Foreign Currency Translation

Please click to access all 18 IFRS for SMEs modules available so far (free registration required).