December

Year in review — 2018

30 Dec 2018

2018 was another successful year for the IAS Plus family with over 16 million page views. We've devoted significant resources to bring you comprehensive coverage of all things IFRS and broader financial reporting and other relevant topics and are pleased that our readers appreciate our efforts.

New IPSASB video on the move to accruals in the United Kingdom

28 Dec 2018

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) has issued a new video as part of a series examining the challenges and benefits of governments adopting International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) and accrual accounting.

In the video interview, David Watkins, IPSASB Technical Advisor, Chair of CIPFA's Accounting and Auditing Standards Panel and former Head of Financial Reporting Policy at HM Treasury, UK, offers his insights on the move to accruals in the United Kingdom in the IPSASB's latest instalment of the "Closer Look at" series.

The new video is available on YouTube.

Earlier videos are available on the IPSASB website.

ASBJ adopts IFRS 16 unmodified as JMIS

27 Dec 2018

The Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ) has issued amendments to ‘Japan’s Modified International Standards (JMIS): Accounting Standards Comprising IFRSs and the ASBJ Modifications'.

The amendments reflect the endorsement process on IFRS 16 and the Standards issued by the IASB between 1 July 2017 and 31 December 2017.

After careful consideration, the ASBJ decided that no ‘deletions or modifications’ should be made for this round of endorsement process, therefore, the amendments made simply reflect the endorsement of the pronouncements.

For more information, see the press release and related documents on the ASBJ website (all documents available in the English language).

Former Deloitte Partner becomes Chairman of the Japanese standard-setter

27 Dec 2018

The Japanese Financial Accounting Standards Foundation (FASF) has announced that Atsushi Kogasaka will become next Chairman of the Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ).

Mr. Kogasaka was a Partner with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in Japan from 2000 to 2009, when he joined the ASBJ as Technical Director. In 2013, he became Vice Chairman of the ASBJ. Mr. Kogasaka’s term as ASBJ Chairman will begin on 1 April 2019.

Please click for access to the press release on the ASBJ website.

Season's greetings

24 Dec 2018

We wish all our readers a peaceful holiday and all the best for the New Year.

We look forward to seeing you again after the holidays and to continue to be your preferred accounting website in 2019.

EBA publishes results of the first post-implementation impact assessment of IFRS 9

22 Dec 2018

Following the first period of application of IFRS 9 'Finacial Instruments' in the European Union, the European Banking Authority (EBA) is scrutinising the effective implementation of the standard by EU institutions and its impact as initially observed. In this context, the EBA has conducted a new exercise on the standard’s impact on EU institutions and has now published a first report that is meant to provide preliminary observations on the first stages of implementation while a deeper analysis is still ongoing.

The post-implementation impact assessment builds on the previous exercises conducted by the EBA before the first application of the new standard published in November 2016 and July 2017. The analysis is now based on actual data reported by banks to competent authorities and supplemented by public disclosures where possible. The sample used for the exercise is the same as the one used in the two previous EBA impact assessments (consisting of 54 institutions across 20 Member States).

Given the complexity of the new standard and the challenges still being faced by banks, it is expected that data accuracy will increase over time. However, the general conclusion can already be drawn that the observations in the report are consistent with the forecasts of the second EBA impact assessment report, in particular in terms of increase in provisions. The EBA notes that the monitoring of IFRS 9 is just starting and the effective impact and implementation of the standard will need to be reviewed through time.

The report is mainly factual and does not include recommendations, however, it does identifiy some areas for ongoing scrutiny and areas for further work from an EBA perspective.

Please click to access the full report on the EBA website.

Agenda for the second meeting of the Management Commentary Consultative Group

22 Dec 2018

The agenda for the second meeting of the IASB's new Management Commentary Consultative Group created to support the project to update the IFRS Practice Statement 'Management Commentary' is now available.

The agenda for the meeting, which will be dedicated to "Performance, position and progress", is as follows:

Friday, 11 January 2019 (08:30-15:30)

  • Overall approach
  • Analysis of the financial statements
  • Matters that could affect the entity’s future development

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

Additional educational module on the IFRS for SMEs on accounting policies, estimates and errors

22 Dec 2018

The IFRS Foundation has issued an additional new stand-alone educational module, which supports the learning, application, and reading of financial statements prepared with the IFRS for SMEs Standard.

The module focuses on the guidance for selecting and applying accounting policies in preparing financial statements and also covers changes in accounting estimates and corrections of errors in prior period financial statements applying Section 10 Accounting Policies, Estimates and Errors of the IFRS for SMEs.

Please click to access all 20 IFRS for SMEs modules available so far (free registration required).

IFRS Foundation appoints three new Trustees

20 Dec 2018

The IFRS Foundation has announced the appointment of Sarah J. Al Suhaimi, Dr Suresh P. Kana, and Kazuyuki Masu as Trustees of the IFRS Foundation. Their appointments will begin on 1 January 2019 and will expire on 31 December 2021.

Ms Al Suhaimi is Chair of the Board of Directors of Tadawul, the Saudi Stock Exchange, and the CEO of NCB Capital, the investment banking arm of Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank.

Dr Kana is the Chairman of the South-African standard-setter, the Financial Reporting Standards Council. He also chairs the King Committee on Corporate Governance in South Africa and the Audit Committee of the United Nations World Food Programme.

Mr Masu is the Executive Vice President and CFO of Mitsubishi Corporation. He is also a Director of the Japan Investor Relations Association and a member of the Japan Business Federation’s committees on taxation and finance and accounting.

In addition, current IFRS Foundation Trustee, Guillermo Babatz has been reappointed to serve a second three-year term, also beginning on 1 January 2019.

For more information, see the press release on the IASB's website.

European Commission approves ESEF Regulation

20 Dec 2018

The European Commission has adopted the ESMA draft for a single European electronic reporting format (ESEF) as Delegated Regulation. This regulation is to be applied to annual financial reports containing financial statements for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2020.

The delegated act has not yet entered into force. The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union may raise objections to regulatory technical standards; if they raise objections, those standards should not enter into force.

The format proposed by ESMA makes use of the eXtensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) for the human readable representation of annual financial reports. In order to facilitate the accessibility, analysis and comparability of the consolidated financial statements prepared under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), ESMA proposes to introduce eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) markups, which will make items disclosed therein machine-readable.

The taxonomy to be used builds on the IFRS Taxonomy developed by the IFRS Foundation as the Delegated Regulation notes that the IFRS Taxonomy is a well-established taxonomy developed to mark up IFRS disclosures and its use facilitates comparability of markups of financial statements drawn up in accordance with IFRS on a global level.

Please click to access the Delegated Regulation and its Annexes on the European Commission website.

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