The ITCG discussed the following:

• Review of common reporting practice related to primary financial statements.
• Review of common reporting practice related to IAS 19, Employee Benefits.
• Forthcoming IFRS Taxonomy consultation documents.

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

Among the four recommendations in the call to action for the G 20 leaders are:

• Focus on public sector transparency and integrity. This recommendation notes that responding to COVID-19 has driven an enormous increase in public sector spending. Integrity and transparency in the public sector are essential to the social contract between governments and their citizens. IFAC therefore calls on the G20 to adopt International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and accrual accounting at all levels of government.
• Resist regulatory fragmentation. IFAC urges the G20 and all stakeholders to agree on a global framework for non-financial reporting that incorporates integrated reporting principles.

Please click for the press release and access to the call to action on the IFAC website.

In addition to the English language recording already pointed out, there are now also Japanese and Korean recordings. All of them can be accessed through the press release on the IASB website.

The review analysed a sample of March 2020 interim and annual reports and accounts and found that although companies provided sufficient information to enable a user to understand the impact COVID-19 had on their performance, position and future prospects, some - particularly interim reports - would have benefited from more extensive disclosure.

The FRC reminds companies that they should: 
 

• explain the significant judgements and estimates made in preparing their accounts and provide meaningful sensitivity analysis or details of a range of possible outcomes to support any disclosed estimation uncertainty;
• describe any significant judgements made in determining whether there is a material uncertainty about their ability to continue as a going concern;
• ensure that assumptions used in determining whether the company is a going concern are compatible with assumptions used in other areas of the financial statements;
• apply the requirements of IAS 1 to any exceptional or similar items, with income statement sub-totals comprising only items recognised and measured in accordance with IFRS;
• apply existing accounting policies for exceptional and other similar items to COVID-19 related income and expenditure consistently and should not split income and expenses between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 financial statement captions arbitrarily; and
• prepare interim reports that provide sufficient information to explain the impact that COVID-19 has had on their performance, position and future prospects.

Please click to access the thematic review on the FRC website.

On 28 May 2020, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published Covid-19-Related Rent Concessions (Amendment to IFRS 16) amending the standard to provide lessees with an exemption from assessing whether a COVID-19-related rent concession is a lease modification. The amendment has not been endorsed for use in the European Union yet, so the relief is not available to European issuers. While the amendment was given positive endorsement advice by both EFRAG and ARC speedily, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union now have three months to object, which means that final endorsement could be delayed to October 2020, unless Parliament and Council issue no objection notices earlier than that.

ESMA's statement now states that provided that the Parliament and the Council do not object to the endorsement of the amendment, ESMA recommends that National Competent Authorities do not prioritise supervisory actions on the application of the lease modification requirements contained in IFRS 16 as currently endorsed by the EU to COVID-19-related lease modifications which would fall within the scope of the IFRS 16 amendment. This coordination of supervisory actions applies exceptionally for financial periods ending on or before 31 July 2020 and as long as issuers account for those transactions on the basis of the IFRS 16 amendment.

Please click to access the public statement on the ESMA website.

The 15-minute podcast can be accessed through the press release on Accountancy Europe's website. It is the sixth in a series of podcasts focusing on different aspects of the crisis. The entire series is available on Accountancy Europe's podcast page.

In June 2020, Accountancy Europe released an analysis of short-term and long-term actions that could support the public sector in countering the pandemic's impact, among them many actions with regard to transparency and reporting.

Specifically, the DP considers three possible approaches the IASB could take:

• No amendments to existing IFRS requirements.
• Amend and/or clarify existing IFRS requirements.
• A new Standard on crypto-assets (liabilities) or a broader category of digital assets (liabilities).

The DP and a press release are available on the EFRAG website. Comments are due by 31 July 2021.

This webcast discusses “how the Board has applied the alignment principles in requesting views on how the IFRS for SMEs Standard should be aligned with IFRS Standards in the scope of this review.”

The IASB, in co­op­er­a­tion with the SME Im­ple­men­ta­tion Group (SMEIG), has developed and issued a request for in­for­ma­tion seeking comments on strategic and general questions, specific sections of the IFRS for SMEs, as well as new topics and other matters related to the IFRS for SMEs.

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

New members would serve three-year terms, starting on 1 January 2021, renewable once. This year, the Trustees are par­tic­u­larly seeking interest from corporate gov­er­nance or­gan­i­sa­tions, private equity firms, or­gan­i­sa­tions involved in wider corporate reporting, tech­nol­ogy or­gan­i­sa­tions and or­gan­i­sa­tions rep­re­sent­ing small and medium-sized entities.

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

The deadline for applications for membership of the multi-stakeholder project task force to be set up is 17 August 2020.

Please click for more information in the press release on the EFRAG website.