Background

In the request for views published in March 2021, the Board asked broad questions on the strategic direction and balance of the IASB’s activities; the criteria for assessing the priority of financial reporting issues that could be added to the IASB’s work plan; and financial reporting issues that could be added to the IASB’s work plan. The Board received 124 comment letters and 37 responses to its related online survey.

General messages

On the three major areas consulted on, the following general messages were received:

• Strategic direction and balance of the IASB’s activities. Respondents generally supported the Board’s current strategic direction. They also indicated that the balance of the IASB’s activities is about right, however, there were calls for increasing the efforts on digital reporting and on understandability and accessibility of the standards. Therefore, the IASB will provide for a modest increase in these two areas.
• Criteria for assessing the priority of financial reporting issues that could be added to the IASB’s work plan. Almost all respondents agreed with the criteria proposed by the Board. Many noted that the criteria were well-balanced and adequate. Some suggested that the IASB rank the criteria or split them into essential and secondary criteria. 
• Financial reporting issues that could be added to the IASB’s work plan. Most respondents rated potential projects on climate-related risks, cryptocurrencies and related transactions, and intangible assets as high priority. Also high on the list were going concern, pollutant pricing mechanisms, and the statement of cash flows and related. At the end of the list were potential projects on borrowing costs, commodity transactions, employee benefits, expenses — inventory and cost of sales, foreign currencies, government grants, negative interest rates and separate financial statements, inflation, and interim financial statements.

The IASB was also very pleased about the responses received through the survey as they included responses of stakeholders that do not normally respond to consultations. Providing the possibility to reply by way of a survey will also be considered for future consultations as it encouraged a broader stakeholder base to respond.

IASB decisions

The comment period on the request for views ended in September 2021. The IASB considered the feedback received from November 2021 to April 2022 and decided:

• to add to its work plan a maintenance and consistent application project on climate-related risks;
• to add to the research pipeline projects on:
  1. intangible assets; and
  2. the statement of cash flows and related matters;
• to create a reserve list of projects that could be added to the work plan only if additional capacity becomes available, which would include projects on:
  1. operating segments; and
  2. pollutant-pricing mechanisms; and
• not to add to its work plan projects on:
  1. cryptocurrencies and related transactions; or
  2. going concern disclosures.

Other feedback

Respondents also commented on:

• Collaboration with the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The IASB and the ISSB expect to collaborate to support complementary standard-setting and reporting. The IASB thinks that coordination and resources will be needed to support collaboration with the ISSB alongside the IASB’s existing activities. This would relate to and be reflected in new accounting standards and major amendments to the accounting standards, digital financial reporting, the understandability and accessibility of accounting standards, and stakeholder engagement.
• Enhancing partnerships with national standard-setters. The IASB's partnership with national standard-setters already supports all of the IASB’s main activities. However, the IASB concluded that the resources of national standard-setters would not enable the IASB to increase the number of projects it could add to its work plan for 2022 to 2026. In the longer term, national standard-setters’ support, particularly during the research phase of a project, could allow for faster completion of projects, however, and thus provide capacity for more projects to be added to the IASB’s work plan as part of future agenda consultations.
• Priority of matters identified in post-implementation reviews. Respondents suggested, in managing stakeholders’ expectations, it would be helpful if the IASB clearly set out the objectives of a post-implementation review and explained better
  what the outcome of a post-implementation review can be. The IASB has discussed with the Trustees’ Due Process Oversight Committee (DPOC) how to communicate more clearly the objective, process and possible outcomes of a post-implementation review.

Additional information

Please click for the following documents on the IASB website:

• Press release
• Feedback statement
• A Snapshot summarising the IASB’s technical priorities for 2022 to 2026