The amendments also clarify that the Chair of the Trustees can be appointed either from among the Trustees or externally and specify that the Vice-Chairs must be appointed from the Trustee ranks.

Please click for the following additional information on the IASB website:

• Press release
• Feedback statement
• Amended constitution

The report sets out the disclosure principles used in developing its recommendations, as well as considerations applicable to all the recommended disclosures in respect of the scope, timing, frequency, location and granularity. It also summarises what the taskforce views as the most important considerations regarding expected credit losses and explains the related disclosures, why they matter to users, and set out a series of specific disclosure recommendations.

The recommendations in the report were developed primarily for use by the preparer firms represented on the taskforce. However, the recommendations may be of relevance to other banks and similar financial institutions as a guide to best practice.

Please click to download the report from the FRC website.

This issue features:

• Spotlight — Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Equity project
• Spotlight — IFRS 9 & 15 implementation update
• We need your views
• Stay up to date

The Investor Update newsletter is available on the IASB’s website.

EFRAG notes that the purpose of the DP is "to encourage debate on:

• a) whether transfers in which an entity either receives or gives value from another entity without directly giving or receiving approximately equal value in exchange [NETs] have differentiating characteristics that could warrant a specific accounting treatment; and
• b) if a specific accounting treatment is warranted, the possible features of that accounting treatment. The DP therefore explores a comprehensive approach and conceptual basis for the recognition of NETs."

The DP and a press release are available on the EFRAG website. Comments are due by 30 April 2019.

While the EU Directive on Non-Financial Information (NFI) Disclosure only applies to larger companies, preliminary results from the EFAA survey suggest that NFI reporting is quite common for SMEs due to national requirements. Furthermore, there is also growing interest in the benefits of integrated thinking and reporting by SMEs.

EFAA suggests that the following policy considerations should be taken into account for further discussion:

• SMEs should be encouraged to consider voluntarily providing NFI as this may yield benefits to them, their stakeholders and the wider public;
• Some elements of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) might be suitable for voluntary adoption by SMEs; and
• National regulators should be encouraged to refer to the NFRD if formulating NFI requirements for their SMEs as this will help enhance international comparability of NFI reporting by SMEs.

Please click to access the full survey results on the EFAA website.

From 2020 on, all annual financial reports in the European Union must be prepared in xHTML, within which financial data is tagged using inline XBRL. The video gives an introduction to the tagging process and requirements for ESEF.

Please click to access the ten minute video on YouTube.

The module focuses on the general requirements for preparing and presenting the financial statements of an entity whose functional currency is that of a hyperinflationary economy applying Section 31 Hyperinflation of the IFRS for SMEs.

Please click to access all 19 IFRS for SMEs modules available so far (free registration required).

The ITCG discussed the following:

• general improvements to the IFRS Taxonomy 2018; and
• update on other IFRS Taxonomy activities.

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

Continuing discussions

The Committee will continue the discussions it had in September on whether, some, cloud computing arrangements create an intangible asset. The staff recommend that the Committee not take the matter onto its Agenda and issue a tentative Agenda Decision to that effect.

In September, the Committee finalised an Agenda Decision IAS 21 The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates—foreign exchange restrictions. At this meeting the Committee is being asked for its feedback on a proposal by the staff to amend IAS 21 to provide additional guidance on estimating an exchange rate.

New issues

IFRS 11 Joint Arrangements—Output received by a joint operator. How should a joint operator account for output arising from a joint operation when the output it receives in a reporting period is different from the output to which it is entitled?

IFRS 9 Financial Instruments—Physical settlement of contracts to buy or sell a non-financial item. When an entity contracts to buy or sell a non-financial item in the future at a fixed price, is it appropriate at the time of physical settlement for an entity to (a) reverse the accumulated gain or loss previously recognised in profit or loss on the derivative, and (b) recognise a corresponding adjustment to either revenue (in the case of a sale contract) or inventory (in the case of a purchase contract)?

IAS 23 Borrowing Costs—Revenue recognised over time. Should borrowing costs be capitalised when the borrowings relate to the construction of a residential multi-unit real estate development for which revenue is recognised over time?

IFRS 9 Financial Instruments—Credit enhancement in ECL measurement. Can the cash flows expected from a financial guarantee contract or any other credit enhancement that is integral to the contractual terms of a loan be included in the measurement of ECL if the credit enhancement would otherwise be required to be separately recognised (for example the lender obtained a guarantee from a guarantor)?

IFRS 9 Financial Instruments—Presentation of contractual interest. How should unrecognised interest be presented when a credit-impaired (stage 3) financial asset is subsequently paid in full or is no longer credit-impaired?

The staff recommend that the Committee not take any of these issues onto its agenda and have drafted tentative Agenda Decisions to that effect.

Other work in progress

The staff are analysing a request in relation to subsurface rights.

The full agenda for the meeting and our pre-meeting summaries can be found here. We will update this page for any changes to the agenda and our Deloitte observer notes from the meeting as they become available.

The data presented in the paper is intended to assist an understanding of the following:

1. The presence of rate-regulated entities in the capital markets in Canada and other jurisdictions;
2. The regulatory framework that governs the relationship between the rate regulator and the rateregulated entity;
3. The similarities and differences in the design of regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions;
4. The degree to which the regulatory framework can influence the enforceability, and value, of an entity’s rights and obligations arising from the performance of rate-regulated activities; and
5. The information that users such as debt and equity analysts, and credit rating agencies, consider when making investing and lending decisions.

The AcSB notes that the research paper contributes to the work of the IASB and national standard-setters as the observations drawn from the data gathered are relevant and of value to the consideration of accounting for rate-regulated activities under IFRSs.

Please click to access a short overview and the full research paper through the press release on the AcSB website.