The discussion of Financial Instruments: Hedge Accounting – Hedging instruments scheduled for Thursday has been removed from the agenda. At the same time an additional IASB meeting has been announced for 27 October 2010. The topic to be discussed is Financial Instruments: Hedge Accounting.

This newsletter describes the recently published amendments to IFRS 7 that increase the disclosure requirements for transactions involving transfers of financial assets. These amendments are intended to provide greater transparency around risk exposures of transactions where a financial asset is transferred but the transferor retains some level of continuing involvement in the asset.

Click for:

• IFRS in Focus Newsletter – IASB amends disclosures about transfers of financial assets (PDF 139k)
• Past editions of IFRS in Focus
• Summary of IFRS 7 on IAS Plus

 

ISAR's annual sessions regularly involve over 300 delegates from more than 100 countries.

The key outcomes from the session include:

• Capacity-building framework for high-quality corporate reporting. The Group of Experts further underscored the need for high-quality corporate reports to facilitate the mobilisation of domestic and international financial resources and to foster investors' confidence. The paper considered at the meeting highlights IFRS (and the IFRS for SMEs and International Public Sector Accounting Standards) as key planks in this framework.
• Climate change-related corporate reporting. The Group of Experts recognised that a harmonised approach to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions disclosure is necessary to improve high-quality corporate reporting to policymakers, investors and other stakeholders and as such also to facilitate low-carbon policies such as, inter alia, "cap-and-trade" systems and carbon taxes.
• Corporate governance disclosures. The Group of Experts reiterated the importance of corporate governance disclosure for attracting investment and promoting sustainable and stable economic growth. ISAR recognised that high-quality disclosure in this area adds value for policymakers, shareholders and other stakeholders (see also our earlier story).

Click for Agreed conclusions from the session (link to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development website).

ISO 10668:2010 specifies a high-level framework for brand valuation, including objectives, bases of valuation, approaches to valuation, methods of valuation and sourcing of quality data and assumptions. It also specifies methods for reporting the results of such valuations. As a high-level and wide-scope document, it does provides general guidance only and is considered to be largely consistent with existing valuation practice.

The standard may be Downloaded from ISO's website.

The webcast will include an overview of the changes to lease accounting proposed by the FASB and the IASB in their joint leases project. There is no charge to attend the web presentation, but you need to register to participate. You can do this now or any time before the presentation. Details of the webcast are as follows:

Topic:	Proposed Changes to Lease Accounting
Date and time:	Thursday, 28 October 2010, 11:00am (EDT) / 4:00pm (UK time)
More information on the webcast and registration:	click here (link to FASB website)
More information on IAS Plus:	For our agenda project page click here

 

IFAC has recently announced the outcomes of the conference.

The implementation guide is intended to help practitioners understand and efficiently apply the Clarified International Standards on Auditing (ISAs), which are effective for audits of financial statements for periods beginning on or after 15 December 2009.

Click for IFAC press release (link to IFAC website). The guide may be Downloaded from IFAC's website.

With a number of major projects planned to be completed in 2011, the boards are seeking views on whether or how to sequence effective dates in order to reduce the burden to interested parties. In deciding how to proceed, the IASB will consider the needs of jurisdictions already using IFRSs as well as those planning to do so. Feedback from the consultation will inform the boards as they jointly develop an implementation plan for those new standards that helps stakeholders to manage both the pace and cost of change.

The request for views is open for comment until 31 January 2011.

Click for:

• IASB press release (PDF 35k)
• IASB request for views: Effective Dates and Transition Methods (link to IASB website)
• FASB press release (link to FASB website)
• FASB Discussion Paper: Effective Dates and Transition Methods (link to FASB website)
• FASB podcast about the Discussion Paper (link to FASB website)

 

However, the AICPA warns that companies will need five years preparation time to adopt IFRS if the SEC requires two years of historical comparative financial statements. If only one year of comparative financial statements is required, a four-year transition period would be needed to adopt IFRS. The AICPA would support a decision by the SEC to require only one year of comparative financial statements.

Click for AICPA comment letter to the SEC (PDF 269k, link to AICPA website).

There will be one training module for each of the 35 sections in the IFRS for SMEs, 22 are so far available, and the remaining 13 modules are planned for release before the end of 2010. Each module is one PDF file and can be downloaded without charge from the IFRS Foundation's Website. Click here to go to the Training Materials. Available modules cover Sections 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, and 32 of the IFRS for SMEs. More information on the IFRS for SMEs is available in our IAS Plus page summarizing the IFRS for SMEs.