A recording of this webinar is now available on YouTube.

The document offers a flowcharts summarising when and how to test for impairment of non-financial assets and eleven questions addressing specific issues that arise in the impairment process within the context of COVID-19.

Please click to download Staff FAQs – Impairment of non-financial assets from the AASB website.

The objective of the event is to collect input from the community of interested preparers that were unable to participate in the field-tests organised by EFRAG. The insights of the field testing will be presented and discussed with a panel of preparers. The audience will be able to contribute to the discussion through polling surveys and Q&A sessions.

Please click for more information on the EFRAG website.

The timing does not follow the usual pattern of the FSA as the intention was to make the recent IFRS 16 amendment on rent concessions available for interim reports.

For more information, see the press release (in Japanese only) on the FSA website.

The Board will discuss the following:

• Disclosure initiative — Accounting policies
• Extractive activities
• IBOR reform and its effects on financial reporting — Phase 2
• Maintenance and consistent application
• Management commentary
• IFRS Taxonomy oral update

The full agenda for the meeting can be found here. We will post any updates to the agenda, our comprehensive pre-meeting summaries, as well as observer notes from the meeting on this page as they become available.

Five of the sixteen members of EFRAG TEG will reach the end of their current term of appointment on 31 March 2021 and two of the country liaison members will reach the end of their current term on 30 November 2020. Not all of the members are eligible for reappointment.

EFRAG welcomes all applications but in particular seeks candidates with an insurance background or user background.

For more information, please see the press release on the EFRAG website.

Please note that the application date has been extended to 2 November 2020.

The new members were appointed for a three-year term beginning 1 July 2020. SMEIG members can serve up to three terms.

Please click for the IASB press release announcing the reappointments.

Eumedion is a non-profit organisation that monitors listed companies in the Netherlands and in Europe on their ESG-performance and looks at risk management, remuneration, transparency and reporting. Eumedion operates as a representative of the interests of institutional investors in the field of corporate governance and sustainability.

The position paper published yesterday concludes the final views of Eumedion, following the publication of Eumedion’s Green paper in October 2019, the feedback received during the Eumedion Conference 2019, the formal and informal responses received and the insights shared during the round table that Eumedion organised together with Accountancy Europe on 9 March 2020.

Key messages of the position paper are:

• Investors struggle to understand how a company creates long-term value and how a company lives up to the valid needs of society where non-financial performance matters.
• There is a need for an International Non-financial reporting Standards Board (‘INSB’) to ensure that enforceable and consistent investor-relevant non-financial information is faithfully reported.
• Eumedion calls on the IFRS Foundation to establish the INSB, as a second separate board next to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).
• External auditors should provide at least limited assurance on the information reported; this would enhance the reliability of corporate non-financial reporting.

The position paper states that the EU needs to be credited for its important role in accelerating the adoption of IFRSs to the current near-global level and expresses the belief that the EU could play a similar role for international non-financial reporting standards. Eumedion also urges the EU to adhere to its leadership role in the field of non-financial reporting. However, the paper quotes ESMA Chair Steven Maijoor in warning that:

It would not only be short-sighted but also detrimental for investors – who typically operate in global financial markets – to build a set of corporate ESG disclosure standards that is only regional.

Please click to access the full position paper on the Eumedion website.

Ms Tarca began her speech by talking about what XBRL is and who uses it. She explained about tagging financial statements, the different versions of XBRL, and gave examples of different uses in the US, in the EU, in the UK, in Japan, in Denmark and in Australia.

This led her to four questions:

• Why have we been slow to embrace digital financial reporting, when the benefits of technological innovation have been profound in other areas of accounting and finance?
• What does research tell us about the US experience from a company preparer/auditor perspective?
• Do investors want digital reporting?
• Are there benefits for capital markets?

On the first question, Ms Tarca explained tat when lodging annual reports in XBRL format is not mandatory, listed companies need a compelling case to take on an activity that consumes resources as tagging financial statements will involve software, systems, expertise, staff and consultants.

On the second question, Ms Tarca mentioned experiences at the SEC pointing to some significant problems relating to the accuracy of tagging and excessive or erroneous use of extensions. However, later errors became less prevalent and some ‘learning’ took place.

Turning to the third question, Ms Tarca pointed at the fact that there seems to be low demand from investors for regulators to make tagged data mandatory as the financial data investors use is already digital in many cases as they get it from database providers. Tagging of data would, therefore, likely help the database providers, who could then focus more on ‘standardising’ and ‘normalising’ data and providing their various other value-adding activities for their clients.

Finally, in discussing the fourth question, Ms Tarca noted research that concluded that XBRL has the potential to decrease information risk and information asymmetry through greater transparency and leads to reduced information processing costs. However, she warned that because of limited use of XBRL data by financial statement users research in this area is still in its early stages.

Ms Tarca concluded her speech mentioning some opportunities for further research around comparability, quality, financial statement presentation, and disclosures.

Please click to access the transcript of her speech on the IASB website.

Recordings of these webinars are now available and can be accessed through the press release on the IASB website.