As reported earlier, among the topics discussed at the meeting were intangibles and the going concern assumption.

The full list of topics discussed at the meeting was:

• Issues surrounding separate financial statements
  • Presentations by Brazil, Italy, and Korea
• Primary financial statements
  • Presentations by EFRAG and Korea on the IASB exposure draft
• Cryptoassets
  • EFRAG discussion paper on the accounting for cryptoassets
• Intangibles
  • Joint paper by Canada, Germany, Japan, UK and US
• Going Concern
  • Presentations by Australia and New Zealand
• International financial reporting for non-profit organisations
• IPSASB update
• Fintech application and accounting standards
  • Presentation by Taiwan
• Impact of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka
  • Presentation by Sri Lanka

The next meeting is to be held on 8-9 March 2021; it will also be held by remote participation.

Please click for the full report from the meeting.

The agenda for the meeting is summarised below:

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

The merger is aimed at advancing the work of CDP, CDSB, GRI, IIRC and SASB who in September 2020 released a statement of intent to work together towards comprehensive corporate reporting in a comprehensive corporate reporting system.

The press release notes that Value Reporting Foundation will maintain the IIRC integrated reporting framework that describes all relevant value creation topics and the approach to integrating them in corporate reporting while the SASB standards provide the precise definitions of the data that should be reported for these topics in each industry. The framework and the standards will remain complementary tools with the Value Reporting Foundation facilitating the use of both together.

The merger responds to the ever increasing calls from global investors and corporates to simplify the corporate reporting landscape by having a globally aligned reporting system. The press release stresses that the Value Reporting Foundation, which will be formed by mid-2021, stands ready to work with the IFRS Foundation, IOSCO, EFRAG, CDP, CDSB, and GRI, and others to work towards a set of global and globally accepted standards.

Please click to access the full press release on the SASB website (an identical press release is available on the IIRC website).

GRI and CDSB have posted congratulatory notes to their websites.

The podcast discusses:

• the joint education session with the FASB;
• Post-implementation review of IFRS 10-12;
• Management commentary;
• Subsidiaries that are SMEs; and
• Maintenance and consistent application.

The podcast (12 minutes) can be accessed through the press release on the IASB website.

The detailed notes taken by Deloitte observers at the meeting are available here.

The proposed update includes elements to reflect common reporting practice and new and amended labels to clarify the accounting meaning and intended use of some existing elements.

For more information, see the press release and proposed update on the IASB’s website. Comments are requested by 26 January 2021.

We agree that the Committee’s conclusions as laid out in the agenda decision reflect the requirements of IFRS 10 and IFRS 16 in relation to the specific fact pattern presented therein. However, we strongly suggest that in addition to this decision the Board takes on a broader project to address the treatment of the sale of corporate wrappers, in particular when, if ever, these should be accounted for as sales of assets rather than subsidiaries.

Please click to download the full comment letter here.

The topics discussed at the meeting included:

• Business combinations — Disclosures, goodwill and impairment
• Primary financial statements

There was also an update session on COVID-19 related matters.

The meeting summary on the IASB website only covers the first two topics, however, the meeting page offers recordings of all three topics.

The next CMAC meeting will be held on 11 March 2021 .The next GPF meeting is proposed to be held on 12 March 2021.

The Committee will discuss the following:

• Administrative matters
• IAS 1 — Classification of debt with covenants as current or non-current
• IAS 19 — Attributing benefit to periods of service
• Supply chain financing arrangements — reverse factoring
• IAS 38 — Configuration or customisation costs in a cloud computing arrangement
• IFRS 9 — Hedging variability in cash flows due to real interest rates
• Work in progress

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.

IASB meeting

Board work plan update: Last month the Board decided to begin the post-implementation review (PIR) of the IFRS 9 classification and measurement requirements and reconsider at a later date when to begin the PIRs of the IFRS 9 impairment and hedge accounting requirements and of IFRS 15. The Board will consider the start dates of those PIRs in the second half of 2021.

Post-implementation review of IFRS 10, IFRS 11 and IFRS 12: The Board confirmed the publication of the request for information (RFI), with a 150-day comment period (rather than the 180 days recommended by the staff). The RFI is expected to be published in December.

Maintenance and Consistent Application—Deferred Tax related to Assets and Liabilities arising from a Single Transaction: The Board is finalising amendments to IAS 12. The amendments are expected to be published in the second quarter of 2021 and will have an effective date of 1 January 2023.

Management Commentary: The staff raised some issues identified during drafting of the Exposure Draft (“sweep issues”). The Board decided that entities not applying IFRS Standards should be permitted to apply the Practice Statement. They also decided to use the term ‘accuracy’ rather than ‘freedom of error, emphasising that it applies to quantitative and qualitative information.

Disclosure Initiative, Subsidiaries that are SMEs: The IASB is developing a Standard setting out reduced disclosure requirements for subsidiaries apply IFRS Standards but meet the definition of an SME. The Board decided to have exceptions to the process for adapting disclosure requirements when preparing the analysis of adaptions to the disclosure requirements of the IFRS for SMEs Standard.  

For an analysis of how the IASB work plan has changed after this meeting, please see https://www.iasplus.com/en/news/2020/11/iasb-work-plan.

Joint IASB—FASB education meeting

The boards updated each other on individual projects that partially or entirely overlap with a project of the other board. The purpose of the meeting was to share information. As such, no decisions were made.

COVID-19: The boards explained the steps they have taken to respond to the COVID-19, such as implementation and educational guidance and adjustments to their work plans. Much of the discussion focused on the accounting for government grants.

Leases other than COVID-19: The IASB staff explained the recent application questions discussed by the IFRS Interpretations Committee and narrow-scope standard-setting that has been initiated with regard to sale and leaseback transactions. The FASB is monitoring the implementation of its equivalent Standard and in July 2020 added a project to its technical agenda to address issues on which the FASB can act because it already has sufficient information from stakeholders. Both boards highlighted that they should continue to strive for as much convergence as possible between the respective Standards.

Goodwill and Impairment: Both the FASB and the IASB have on their respective agendas projects covering accounting for goodwill. Those projects do not constitute a joint project. However, both boards previously decided to monitor each other’s work because of the largely converged accounting models for business combinations. The FASB’s project is in an active project phase while the IASB’s project is in a research phase.

The initial discussion focused on the IASB’s preliminary view that an entity should be required to disclose the metrics that management (the chief operating decision maker or ‘CODM’ as described in IFRS 8) will use to monitor whether the objectives of the acquisition are met. The boards also discussed the subsequent accounting for goodwill.

Supply chain financing: The IASB described the issues that have been submitted to the IFRS Interpretations Committee, and the tentative agenda decision it has published. The IASB also outlined a possible narrow-scope standard-setting project in early 2021. The Big 4 firms submitted an agenda request to the FASB in October 2019 for guidance on disclosure and cash flow statement presentation of supplier finance programmes involving trade payables. Having undertaken research and outreach, the FASB decided in October 2020 to add a project to its agenda to develop disclosure requirements related to supplier finance programmes involving trade payables (a narrow scope). The FASB noted that there is increased disclosure in the US as a consequence of SEC staff speeches and guidance that encourages qualitative and quantitative disclosures in MD&A.

Please click to access the detailed notes taken by Deloitte observers for the entire meeting.

Below is an analysis of all changes made to the work plan since our last analysis on 31 October 2020.

Standard-setting projects

• Disclosure initiative — Subsidiaries that are SMEs — the decision of whether to issue a discussion paper or an exposure draft is now expected in January 2021 (previously December 2020)
• Management commentary — the issuance of an exposure draft is now expected in the second quarter of 2021 (previously first half of 2021)
• Rate-regulated activities — the issuance of an exposure draft is now expected in January 2021 (previously first quarter of 2021)

Maintenance projects

• Accounting policies and accounting estimates (Amendments to IAS 8) — the issuance of final amendments is now expected in the first quarter of 2021 (previously December 2020)
• Deferred tax related to assets and liabilities arising from a single transaction — the issuance of final amendments is now expected in the second quarter of 2021 (previously no date given)
• Disclosure initiative — Accounting policies — the issuance of final amendments is now expected in the first quarter of 2021 (previously December 2020)

Research projects

• Dynamic risk management — the feedback on the core model is expected to be discussed in the second quarter of 2021 (previously first half of 2021)
• Extractive activities — a decision on the project direction is now expected in the first quarter of 2021 (previously first half of 2021)
• Post-implementation review of IFRS 9 — newly added to the work plan; next stept in the project will be the issuance of a request for information (no date given)

Other projects

• IFRS Taxonomy Update — Amendments to IAS 1, IAS 8 and IFRS Practice Statement 2 — the issuance of a proposed IFRS Taxonomy Update is now expected in the first quarter of 2021 (previously December 2020)
• IFRS Taxonomy Update — Common practice (IAS 19) — the expected date for the issuance of a proposed IFRS Taxonomy Update has been dropped, however, the IASB announced in a press release that the proposed IFRS Taxonomy Update will be issued on 24 November 2020
• IFRS Taxonomy Update — Interest Rate Benchmark Reform — Phase 2 — the feedback on the proposed IFRS Taxonomy Update has been discussed and a final IFRS Taxonomy Update is now expected in December 2020

The above is a faithful comparison of the IASB work plan at 31 October 2020 and 20 November 2020. For access to the current IASB work plan at any time, please click here.