News

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Adoption of IFRSs in Azerbaijan

09 Apr 2006

We have created a new Azerbaijan Page to report information about the use of IFRSs in Azerbaijan. Companies listed on the Baku Stock Exchange are required to report under Azerbaijani GAAP.

No IFRS reporting is allowed.
  • All local and foreign banks operating in Azerbaijan are required to produce IFRS reports. Such reports are annually submitted to the National Bank of Azerbaijan.
  • Effective from 2008 all major state owned enterprises (including major utilities and upstream oil and gas companies) are required to report under IFRSs.
  • Note however, that many companies in Azerbaijan have already adopted IFRS reporting over the past few years. The major driver behind this process is the desire to borrow from European lenders, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and KfW (the German development bank) who require audited IFRS financial statements.
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    IAS Plus website in German keeps growing

    08 Apr 2006

    Since the German Language IAS Plus Website (www.iasplus.de) went on line in February 2005, it has had over 175,000 visitors.

    Recently it is averaging between 700 and 1,000 daily visitors. It is the only website in the German-speaking region offering daily, comprehensive news about the IASB and international financial reporting. We have a permanent link from this page to www.iasplus.de in the left-side column of links.

     

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    Commissioner McCreevy's comments on convergence

    08 Apr 2006

    Charlie McCreevy, the EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, spoke about (PDF 77k) at the IASCF 'convergence conference' in Frankfurt earlier this week.

    His comments centred on three areas:
    • Application of existing IFRS in the EU
    • What does 'convergence' mean?
    • Beyond convergence
    Commission McCreevy's overall conclusion:

    High quality financial reporting is fundamental for an integrated European capital market which operates effectively, smoothly and efficiently. Europe made a visionary step to require the use of IFRS: now we must see to it that they are consistently applied and interpreted across the EU so that companies can reap maximum benefit. I am a firm believer in truly global accounting standards that serve efficient capital markets around the world and we have an opportunity at the moment to ensure that the momentum towards convergence is maintained so that these benefits can be felt, not just for companies within the EU, but also for companies across the globe.

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    March 2006 Accounting Roundup posted

    07 Apr 2006

    We have posted the (PDF 325k) published by Deloitte & Touche LLP (USA).

    Topics covered in this issue include:

    • FASB developments including a final Statement on Accounting for Servicing of Financial Assets; a proposed Statement on Employers' Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension and Other Postretirement Plans; a final FSP on accounting for life settlement contracts; and a joint FASB-IASB request for information on financial analysis of companies that report financial instruments at fair value.
    • EITF developments including March 2006 EITF meeting.
    • AICPA developments including a final SOP on attestation engagements on investment management firms; a proposed SAS on an auditor's communication with those charged with governance; guidance on audit reports for non-issuers that are a subsidiary, division, or segment of an SEC registrant; and an audit risk alert.
    • SEC developments including SEC exposure of PCAOB's proposed rules concerning independence, tax services, and contingent fees; the draft report of the SEC Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies; and a request for feed back on interactive data.
    • PCAOB developments including releases on addressing quality control criticisms in inspection reports.
    • International developments including a final Interpretation on reassessment of embedded derivatives and proposed amendments presentation of financial statements.
    You will find past issues of Accounting Roundup Here.
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    IASB statement on relationships with standard setters

    07 Apr 2006

    The IASB has published a Statement of Best Practice: Working Relationships between the IASB and other Accounting Standard-Setters (PDF 166k).

    The Statement identifies a range of activities that the IASB and regional and national accounting standard-setters believe they should undertake in the interests of facilitating the adoption of or convergence with IFRSs issued by the IASB. Those activities include:
    • Communication, both between standard-setters and their constituents and among standard-setters themselves.
    • Project development, including the ways in which other accounting standard-setters can assist the IASB in progressing particular projects.
    • Input on IASB consultative documents.
    • The processes and approaches other accounting standard-setters might employ in adopting or converging with IFRSs.
    • Co-operation in the development of interpretations of IFRSs.
    The IASB had Invited Public Comment (PDF 8k) on an Earlier Draft (PDF 43k) of the Statement (at that time referred to as a Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU), and had discussed it with national standard setters at meetings in September 2004 and again September 2005. Here is the link to (PDF 30k).
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    IFAC urges focus on needs of SMEs

    07 Apr 2006

    The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has issued a statement expressing support for "appropriate, simplified guidance being developed for small and medium entities....

    Recognising that international standards that are right for a large public company may be burdensome for a small enterprise, IFAC, together with its member bodies, is urging standard setters and regulators to consider the unique needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing their rules and regulations." Click for IFAC Statement (PDF 79k).
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    SEC's proposed 'compensation discussion and analysis'

    07 Apr 2006

    In January 2006, the US Securities and Exchange Commission published a (PDF 550k).

    At the heart of the proposals is a new reporting section called Compensation Discussion and Analysis, which would provide narrative disclosure of a company's policies and decisions regarding its compensation of named executive officers. Required disclosures would include total compensation, the processes for setting compensation, the role of executive officers in setting compensation, and the role and identify of compensation consultants. Comment deadline is 10 April 2006. At an executive compensation conference earlier this week, John W. White, the new Director of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance, presented some views about the proposed rules in a presentation titled (PDF 68k). Mr. White also comments more generally on disclosure controls and procedures.
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    Some statistics about www.iasplus.com files

    07 Apr 2006

    We have computed a few statistics about the volume of information available on Deloitte's www.iasplus.com website.

    Here are the current statistics and comparable figures as of August 2004:

    April 2006

    August 2004

    Number of files

    2,990

    1,775

    Total file size

    410mb

    226mb

    Number of HTML pages

    512

    392

    Downloadable PDF files*

    1,930

    994

    GIF image files

    386

    293

    JPG image files

    126

    78

    Links to other websites*

    1,023

    933

    *We prefer to post downloadable files directly on IAS Plus, where possible, because links to other websites sometimes stop working. We link when we are unable to get permission to post copyrighted files. We test all links periodically.
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    New subscriptions page for IAS Plus alerts

    06 Apr 2006

    We have created a new Subscription Page by which you can add yourself to our -->IAS Plus email alert list -->.

    There is no charge. A permanent link to that page can always be found on this home page (left column, Subscribe to Alerts). We will alert you to new issues of our IAS Plus Newsletter, with a download link, and to important IFRS news such as new IASB EDs and Standards and IFRIC draft and final Interpretations.
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    'Heads Up' on FASB's pensions proposals

    06 Apr 2006

    Last week, the US Financial Accounting Standards Board issued its Exposure Draft Employers' Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension and Other Postretirement Plans.

    The ED proposes amendments to FASB Statements No. 87, 88, 106, and 132(R) to require, among other things, that a company that sponsors a postretirement benefit plan fully recognise, as an asset or liability, the over-funded or under-funded status of its benefit plan in its balance sheet. The proposal is designed to partially tackle certain important deficiencies the FASB finds in today's pension accounting:
    • Changes in a plan's assets and its benefit obligation are not recognised as they occur.
    • Important information about postretirement plans is relegated to the footnotes rather than being recognised in the financial statements.
    Key concepts of this ED are summarised in a new (PDF 128k), published by Deloitte & Touche LLP (USA).

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