The agenda for the IASB's May 2006 Board meeting (which we had reported in our News Story of 12 May 2006) has been expanded to include discussion of Accounting Standards for Small and Medium-sized Entities on Thursday morning 25 May 2006. The SME discussion will continue on Friday morning 26 May 2006.

He succeeds Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, who has stepped down due to his appointment as Minister of Finance of Italy in the new government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Mr Laskawy, a long-serving Trustee, is in the last year of his second and final term. The IASCF Nominating Committee has begun the process of selecting a successor to Mr. Padoa-Schioppa. The Nominating Committee will consult the Trustee Appointments Advisory Group, a body comprising leaders of regional and international organisations, in developing recommendations to present to the full Trustees. Click for IASCF Press Release (PDF 81k).

To ensure that this guidance is of help to non-accelerated filers and smaller public companies, the Commission intends that this future guidance will be scalable and responsive to their individual circumstances. The guidance will also be sensitive to the fact that many companies have already invested substantial resources to establish and document programs and procedures to perform their assessments over the last few years. The form of the guidance has yet to be determined. Public comment will be invited.

Revisions to PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 2. AS 2 addresses An Audit of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting Performed in Conjunction with an Audit of Financial Statements.

SEC oversight of PCAOB's programme for inspecting auditing firms.

Extension of compliance for non-accelerated filers. To permit non-accelerated filers and their auditors to have the benefit of the management guidance that the SEC intends to issue, and to have the opportunity to evaluate and implement the revisions that the PCAOB plans to make to AS No. 2, the Commission expects to issue a short postponement of the effective date of the Commission's rules implementing Section 404 for non-accelerated filers. All filers would be expected to comply with the management assessment of internal controls required by Section 404(a) of Sarbanes-Oxley for fiscal years beginning on or after Dec. 16, 2006.

Click for (PDF 82k).

Global Offerings Services is a global team of Deloitte practitioners assisting non-US companies and non-US practice office engagement teams in applying US and International accounting standards (that is, US GAAP and IFRSs) and in complying with the SEC's financial reporting rules. Past GOs Newsletters are Here.

Click to download the Endorsement Status as of 18 May 2006 (PDF 28k). Currently, the following IASB pronouncements have not yet been endorsed for use in Europe:

• IFRIC 8 Scope of IFRS 2
• IFRIC 9 Reassessment of Embedded Derivatives

Click for (PDF 88k).

Mr. Padoa-Schioppa, who was a founding member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, became chairman of the IASCF on 1 January 2006. The IASCF is the oversight body for the IASB. The 22 IASCF trustees are charged with naming the new IASCF chairman.

He has made three speeches relating to capital markets and accounting and auditing:

• (PDF 73k).
• (PDF 79k).
• (PDF 85k).

It includes comments on its oversight of IFAC's ethical, auditing, and education standard-setting activities. The report, along with other information, may be downloaded from the PIOB's new website at www.ipiob.org. The PIOB was formally established in February 2005 to oversee IFAC's auditing and assurance, ethics, and education standard-setting activities as well as its Member Body Compliance Program. This last activity is designed to encourage member bodies to adopt international standards and to implement quality assurance and investigation and discipline programs. A Monitoring Group comprised of international financial regulators oversees the work of the PIOB. Click to download the First Public PIOB Report (PDF 195k).

Our overall view:

We do not believe the Board should issue the proposed amendments at this time. We refer you to our comment letter responding to D11 Changes in Contributions to Employee Share Purchase Plans dated 1 March 2005. The proposed amendments would codify in the standard the same requirements as the IFRIC were proposing as an interpretation. We believe that the Board should undertake further research and consider alternative approaches that may be better suited to address the wide range of schemes that exist in practice today. We have included in our comment letter a proposed approach that we believe should be considered by the Board prior to issuing a final amendment (as discussed in the responses below).