2018

First discussion of sixth round of academic research contributions to the IASB's work

30 Oct 2018

Five teams of researchers have presented their accounting research projects to members and technical staff of the IASB. The research projects are independent but are all directly relevant to projects on the Board’s work plan. The involvement with the research programme helps the Board to ensure its standard-setting is evidence-based.

The evidence the IASB is looking for includes

  • responses to consultative documents;
  • fieldwork such as assessing systems changes or the hypothetical application of a proposed new financial reporting requirement;
  • empirical analysis from studies of reported accounting data, share price relationships and analysts’ forecasts;
  • the results of experimental studies;
  • analytical modelling; and
  • collecting and analysing views from surveys.

Topics and presenters of the sixth round of the research programme are available through the press release on the IASB website.

Agenda for the November 2018 GPF meeting

30 Oct 2018

Representatives from the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) will meet with the Global Preparers Forum (GPF) in London on 6 November 2018. The agenda for the meeting has been released.

The full agenda for the meeting is summarised below:

Tuesday, 6 November 2018 (10:10-17:20)

  • Introduction of new members
  • IASB update
  • Primary financial statements — Overview of the Board’s proposals to be included in the first consultation document
  • Management commentary
    • Objective of management commentary
    • Applying materiality
    • Principles for preparing management commentary
  • Goodwill and impairment — Disclosure objectives and requirements
  • Financial instruments with characteristics of equity — Key proposals of the discussion paper

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

ESMA announces enforcement priorities for 2018 financial statements

27 Oct 2018

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has announced the priority issues that the assessment of listed companies' 2018 financial statements will focus on.

ESMA considers the following key topics to be especially relevant for the examinations of listed companies' financial statements:

  • application for the first time of IFRS 9 Financial Instruments and IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers, and
  • disclosure of the implementation and expected impact of IFRS 16 Leases.

In addition, this year’s priorities highlight the requirements to disclose non-financial information, with a focus on environmental matters, and specific aspects of ESMA’s Guidelines on Alternative Performance Measures. ESMA also highlights the importance of disclosures analysing the possible impacts of the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.

ESMA and European national enforcers will monitor and supervise the application of the IFRS requirements outlined in the priorities, with national authorities incorporating them into their reviews and taking corrective actions where appropriate. ESMA will collect data on how European listed entities have applied the priorities and will publish its findings in a separate report.

Please click for the following documents on the ESMA website:

Updated IASB work plan — Analysis

26 Oct 2018

Following the IASB's October 2018 meeting, we have analysed the IASB work plan to see what changes have resulted from the meeting and other developments since the work plan was last revised in September. What is still missing from the work plan is the fact that the IASB has begun discussing possible amendments to IFRS 17 'Insurance Contracts' and plans to continue these discussions in the next months. Otherwise, changes to the work plan are few.

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.

IASB releases podcast on IFRS 17

26 Oct 2018

The IASB staff has released a podcast on the discussions around IFRS 17 'Insurance Contracts' at the October 2018 IASB meeting.

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.

October 2018 IASB meeting notes posted

26 Oct 2018

The IASB met on Wednesday 24 and Thursday 25 October 2018 to discuss eight topics. We have posted our comprehensive Deloitte observer notes for all projects discussed during the meeting.

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.

EFRAG reacts to ESA's comment on IFRS 17 endorsement process in the EU

26 Oct 2018

On 18 October, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) had jointly written to the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) to express concerns on the endorsement process for IFRS 17 'Insurance Contracts'. The EFRAG President has now publicly reacted to that letter.

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.

Fifth IASB Research Forum - papers available

26 Oct 2018

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) will host its fifth Research Forum on 11 and 12 November 2018 in Sydney. The papers to be presented and discussed are now available on the IASB website.

Communiqué from latest China-Japan-Korea accounting standard-setters meeting

26 Oct 2018

A communiqué has been issued from a meeting of the standard-setters from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea held in Busan on 19 October 2018.

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).

Presentations at ISAR 35

25 Oct 2018

The thirty-fifth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) is currently being held in Geneva. Presentations from the meeting are currently being posted to the ISAR 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.

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