January

January 2021 IASB meeting agenda posted

15 Jan 2021

The IASB has posted the agenda for its next meeting, which will be held via video conference on 26 January 2021.

The IASB will discuss the following:

  • Work plan update
  • Maintenance and consistent application
  • Disclosure initiative — Subsidiaries that are SMEs
  • Primary financial statements

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.

Deloitte launches enhanced IFRS e-learning website

15 Jan 2021

We are pleased to announce a major redesign to our IFRS e-learning platform. The site allows external users to complete over 40 of Deloitte’s IFRS e-learnings free of charge with 6 million+ uses in recent years.

Deloitte has developed its high quality e-learning modules to help users develop their knowledge and application of the basic principles and concepts of IFRSs and IASs. Our e-learning on IFRS has been a leading educational and training resource on IFRS since it was initially released in 2004, with a range of corporate, educational and professional organisations using the content as their primary tool for IFRS education.

Please click to access our redesigned and enhanced e-learning platform here. Of course you can also continue to access the individual modules through our IAS Plus e-learning page.

Educational material on going concern requirements

13 Jan 2021

The IFRS Foundation has issued educational material, 'Going concern — a focus on disclosure', which intends to supports companies in its implementation of the requirements related to the preparation of financial statements using IFRS Standards on a going concern basis.

IAS 1 requires management to make an assessment of an entity's ability to continue as a going concern. If management has significant concerns about the entity's ability to continue as a going concern, the uncertainties must be disclosed. In the current stressed economic environment arising from the covid-19 pandemic, deciding whether the financial statements should be prepared on a going concern basis may involve a greater degree of judgement than usual.

For more information, see Deloitte's IFRS in Focus newsletter as well as the press release on the IASB’s website.

Appointment to the IFRS Advisory Council

13 Jan 2021

The Trustees of the IFRS Foundation have announced an additional appointment to the IFRS Advisory Council effective 1 January 2021.

Xianzhong Li will represent the Chinese Ministry of Finance on the Council.

A press release announcing his appointment is available on the IASB website.

Academics and the post-implementation reviews of IFRS 9, IFRS 15, and IFRS 16

12 Jan 2021

The IFRS Foundation is offering three webinars aimed at identifying how academics can contribute to the post-implementation reviews of IFRS 9 'Financial Instruments', IFRS 15 'Revenue from Contracts with Customers', and IFRS 16 'Leases'.

Each webinar will be offered once in the morning and once in the afternoon to accommodate stakeholders in different time zones. The webinars will last approximately 60 minutes and will consist of an overview of the standard’s objectives and related research opportunities, followed by questions and answers.

Please click for registration on the IASB website:

IFRS 9, Thursday 21 January 2021:

IFRS 16, Friday 22 January 2021:

IFRS 15, Monday 8 February 2021:

Podcast on IFRS Interpretations Committee developments

08 Jan 2021

The IASB has issued a podcast on the developments of the IFRS Interpretations Committee during the fourth quarter of 2020.

The podcast (30 minutes) is hosted by IFRS In­ter­pre­ta­tions Committee Chair and IASB Vice-Chair Sue Lloyd and Technical Staff member Patrina Buchanan and focuses on reverse factoring arrangements, cloud computing arrangements, classification of debt as current or non-current, defined benefit plans, and inflation cash flow hedge accounting.

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

Response of Accountancy Europe to the ad personam mandate on non-financial reporting standard setting

08 Jan 2021

Accountancy Europe has responded to the consultation document on the ad personam mandate on potential need for changes to the governance and funding of EFRAG in the context of possible changes to non-financial reporting by companies.

In addition to proposals and comments on an advisory council, the proposed structure, due process matters, and the funding needed, the comment letter also discusses the cooperation with other standard setters and initiatives. Accountancy Europe notes, that it supports a “building block” approach to non-financial information (NFI) reporting standard setting: The base would be global standards for market transparency, achieved by the coordination, cooperation and consolidation of global NFI initiatives and additional “blocks” of EU NFI reporting standards could then be added to that, where necessary.

Under this scenario, Accountancy Europe notes, EFRAG’s role would be to endorse global NFI reporting standards in the EU and to develop the added “block” of EU NFI reporting standards important for the EU public policy objectives. The comment letter points out that international cooperation is the best way forward:

Therefore, we suggest EFRAG to collaborate with the IFRS Foundation, CDP, the Value Reporting Foundation, the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), to set the respective roles and task to avoid inefficiencies (e.g., output and funding) and to timely address the urgent issues at hand.

Please click to access the full comment letter on the Accountancy Europe website.

UK begins own endorsement of IFRSs and amendments to IFRSs

07 Jan 2021

After the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020, the UK ceased to apply EU law. IFRSs adopted by the EU at that point of time were incorporated into Domestic UK law as IFRSs as adopted by the UK. The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), who has been given the power of endorsing and adopting international accounting standards while the UK Endorsement Board (UKEB) is still being established, has now adopted two amendments to IFRSs for use within the UK.

The adopted amendments are:

  • Interest Rate Benchmark Reform — Phase 2 (Amendments to IFRS 9, IAS 39, IFRS 7, IFRS 4 and IFRS 16); and
  • Extension of the Temporary Exemption from Applying IFRS 9 (Amendments to IFRS 4).

The UKEB website, which was launched on 5 January 2021, offers an adoption status report (similar to the EFRAG status report) that shows which amendments have been adopted and which adoptions are still outstanding. It can be found here.

Korean translations of all agenda decisions

07 Jan 2021

The Korea Accounting Standards Board (KASB) has published Korean translations of all agenda decisions published by the IFRS Interpretations Committee.

The 145 Agenda Decisions are comprised of those issued by the IFRS IC from 2011 to June 2020 that are currently available to the public.

Please click to access the agenda decisions on the KASB website.

Second Deloitte response to ad personam mandate on non-financial reporting standard setting

06 Jan 2021

The Deloitte firms in the European Union have responded to the consultation document on the ad personam mandate on potential need for changes to the governance and funding of EFRAG in the context of possible changes to non-financial reporting by companies.

We reiterate that we support actions in favour of global initiatives because the issues to be addressed are global issues and need global solutions. Businesses have global supply and value chains, face global risks and have global investors. Most importantly, issues such as climate change and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals require international solutions.

With respect to the Consultation document:

  • We are supportive of the proposals in relation to EFRAG’s new mission and due process as described in the document.
  • We support retaining the current infrastructure and role for the financial reporting.
  • We support the idea of an enlarged General Assembly that covers all EFRAG’s activities.
  • We support the proposals for an EFRAG (Supervisory) Board, which would look after the governance and administration of the overall organisation, as well as the oversight of all the EFRAG bodies.
  • We support the financial reporting and non-financial reporting Boards having the ultimate decision-making powers on financial reporting and non-financial reporting issues respectively.
  • For non-financial reporting, to the extent that EFRAG is entrusted with standard-setting activities, the non-financial reporting Board is likely to require enhanced technical competences, as compared to the current EFRAG Board.
  • Collecting the views of EU Member States /national public authorities on non-financial reporting will be important.
  • With respect to the EU institutions and agencies, we suggest their participation in an observer capacity with speaking rights, at each level of the EFRAG organisation, where this would be relevant.
  • With respect to the representation of the private sector and civil society, we are strongly in favour of a public-private partnership for EFRAG.
  • We support close involvement and/or cooperation between EFRAG and the identified key international non-financial reporting standard-setting organisations.
  • To enable the EFRAG structure to achieve its possible mission for non-financial reporting standard-setting successfully, it will need additional competent operational resources at the EFRAG staff level.
  • Finally, considering the proposed governance structure and the need for long-term finance, as well as the fact that the objective would be to possibly develop non-financial reporting standards, our view is that the European Commission and the Member States should provide the majority of the funding.

Please click to download our full comment letter here.

Hyperinflationary economies - updated IPTF watch list available

06 Jan 2021

IAS 29 'Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies' defines and provides general guidance for assessing whether a particular jurisdiction's economy is hyperinflationary. But the IASB does not identify specific jurisdictions. The International Practices Task Force (IPTF) of the Centre for Audit Quality (CAQ) monitors the status of 'highly inflationary' countries. While it monitors the status of highly inflationary countries for the purposes of applying US GAAP, its criteria for identifying such countries are similar to those for identifying 'hyperinflationary economies' under IAS 29.

The IPTF's discussion document for the 10 November 2020 meeting is now available and states the following view of the Task Force:

Countries with three-year cumulative inflation rates exceeding 100%:

  • Argentina
  • Iran
  • Lebanon
  • South Sudan
  • Sudan
  • Venezuela
  • Zimbabwe

Countries with projected three-year cumulative inflation rates exceeding 100%:

  • Suriname

Countries where the three-year cumulative inflation rates had exceeded 100% in recent years:

There are no countries in this category for this period.

Countries with recent three-year cumulative inflation rates exceeding 100% after a spike in inflation in a discrete period:

There are no countries in this category for this period.

Countries with projected three-year cumulative inflation rates between 70% and 100% or with a significant (25% or more) increase in inflation during the current period

  • Angola
  • Haiti
  • Liberia
  • Yemen

The IPTF also notes that there may be additional countries with three-year cumulative inflation rates exceeding 100% or that should be monitored which are not included in the analysis as the necessary data is not available. An example cited is Syria.

The full list, including exact numbers, detailed explanations of the calculation of the numbers, and observations of the Task Force is available on the CAQ website.

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