The standards had earlier been endorsed by the Philippines Accounting Standards Council. Formal adoption is set out in SEC Memorandum Circular 19 on the Philippine Financial Reporting Standards. The circular covers 26 accounting standards, including 17 revised IASs, five IFRSs, and four interpretations. The SEC said companies required to submit quarterly reports in 2005 need not present certain comparative figures for IAS 39. However, quarterly reports must discuss the status of conversion plans. The banking industry (led by the Bankers Association of the Philippines), along with mutual funds and insurance companies, had sought to defer IAS 39. A key bankers' concern was that IAS 39 requires that loan loss provisions reflect only incurred losses while the current provisioning practice is to base the allowance on a percentage of outstanding balances (that is, expected losses). In Asia, Philippines joins Australia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Singapore in adopting the entire suite of IFRSs as national GAAP. Australia and New Zealand have made some changes to recognition and measurement principles by eliminating some accounting policy choices permitted by IFRSs, and Singapore has modified some of the recognition and measurement principles in IFRSs. Click for Philippines SEC Announcement (PDF 102k).

The amendments provide transitional relief from retrospective application of the 'day 1' gain and loss recognition requirements. They allow, but do not require, entities to adopt an approach to transition that is easier to implement than that in the previous version of IAS 39, and will enable entities to eliminate differences between the IASB's Standards and US requirements.

Specifically, the amendments give entities a choice of applying the 'day 1' gain or loss recognition requirements in IAS 39:

• retrospectively (as previously required by IAS 39)
• prospectively to transactions entered into after 25 October 2002 (the effective date of similar requirements in US GAAP)
• prospectively to transactions entered into after 1 January 2004 (the date of transition to IFRSs for many entities).

Click for IASB Press Release (PDF 73k).

 

We have combined all of our notes from the IASB meeting on 15-17 December 2004 onto a Separate Page.

D11 proposes that:

• If an employee stops contributing to an ESPP while remaining in the entity's employment, and, as a consequence, is no longer able to buy shares under the plan, the entity shall account for this event as a cancellation. Therefore, in accordance with paragraph 28(a) of IFRS 2, the entity shall recognise immediately as expense the amount that otherwise would have been recognised for services received over the remainder of the vesting period
• If an employee changes from one ESPP to another, and the entity identifies the equity instruments granted to the employee under the new ESPP as replacements for the equity instruments granted to that employee under the original ESPP, the entity shall account for this event as a modification of the original grant. If the entity does not identify the new equity instruments granted under the new ESPP as replacements for the equity instruments granted under the original ESPP, the entity shall account for:
  • (a) the employee's cessation of participation in the original ESPP as a cancellation
  • (b) the employee's commencement of participation in the new ESPP as a new grant of equity instruments.

Comments are due by 1 March 2005. Click for Press Release (PDF 54k).

 

We have combined all of our notes from the IASB meeting on 15-17 December 2004 onto a Separate Page.

This option is similar to the requirements of the UK standard, FRS 17 Retirement Benefits.

The Board concluded that, pending further work on post-employment benefits and on reporting comprehensive income, the approach in FRS 17 should be available as an option to preparers of financial statements using IFRSs.

The amendment also provides guidance on allocating the cost of a group defined benefit plan to the entities in the group. Click for IASB Press Release (PDF 56k).

 

IFRIC 5 explains how to treat expected reimbursements from funds set up to meet the costs of decommissioning plant (such as nuclear plant) or equipment (such as cars) or in undertaking environmental restoration or rehabilitation (such as rectifying pollution of water or restoring mined land).

The main requirements of the Interpretation are:

• If a contributor recognises a decommissioning obligation under IFRSs and contributes to a fund to segregate assets to pay for the obligation, it should apply IAS 27, SIC-12, IAS 31, and IAS 28 to determine whether decommissioning funds should be consolidated, proportionately consolidated, or accounted for under the equity method
• When a fund is not consolidated, proportionately consolidated, or accounted for under the equity method, the contributor should recognise its obligation to pay decommissioning costs as a liability and recognise its interest in the fund separately unless the contributor is not liable to pay decommissioning costs
• A right to reimbursement should be measured at the lower of (a) the amount of the decommissioning obligation recognised and (b) the contributor's share of the fair value of the net assets of the fund adjusted for actual or expected factors that affect the entity's ability to access these assets. Changes in the carrying amount of this right (other than contributions to and payments from the funds) should be recognised in profit or loss
• A residual interest in a fund that extends beyond a right to reimbursement, such as a contractual right to distributions once all the decommissioning has been completed or on winding up the fund may be an equity instrument within the scope of IAS 39.

IFRIC 5 is effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2006.  Click for IASB Press Release (PDF 65k).

 

We have combined all of our notes from the IASB meeting on 15-17 December 2004 onto a Separate Page.

The following were recommended for endorsement: IFRS 6; the IAS 39 amendment for transition; the amendments to IAS 19 Employee Benefits; and IFRIC Interpretations 2, 4, and 5.

However, with regard to IFRIC 3 Emission Rights, a majority of EFRAG members have "serious concerns about the information resulting from application of this IFRIC".

EFRAG's meeting notes indicate that those concerns "could result in a negative advice" to the Commission. The draft endorsement advice letter will be discussed again at EFRAG's January meeting.

 

Abbas has also been appointed to the Developing Nations Permanent Task Force (DNPTF) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC).