Atkins provided an update on the SEC's implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. A portion of his Presentation focussed on the international impact of the Act and the SEC's interest in finding 'common ground' between the US and the EU approaches to corporate governance.

The roundtable will be divided into two sessions. The first (2:00-4:00pm) will address the appropriate scope of the Board's oversight of non-US public accounting firms. The second (4:15-5:00pm) will cover registration of non-US public accounting firms. The SEC Commissioners will attend. Confirmed participants include:

• European Commission
• Wirtschaftspruferkammer (German Chamber of Accountants)
• Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO)
• Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom)
• Financial Services Agency (Japan)
• Canadian Public Accountability Board
• Embassy of Australia
• Federation des Experts Comptables (FEE)
• Ernst & Young (Brussels, Belgium)
• PricewaterhouseCoopers (Toronto, Canada)
• Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (Santiago, Chile)
• Pennsylvania Public Employees' Retirement System
• State of Wisconsin Investment Board

We have also converted it into Excel Spreadsheet Format (XLS 137k).

Among the proposed requirements:

All securities issuers must publish: An audited annual financial report (financial statements based on International Accounting Standards) and a management report, within three months of the end of each financial year. A half-yearly condensed financial report based on IAS 34 as well as an update of the last annual management report. Share issuers must also publish: A less extensive quarterly financial report for the first and third quarters of a financial year, including turnover and profit and loss before or after tax. Companies that issue only debt securities: These companies are currently not subject to any interim reporting requirement at all. Under the proposal they would be required to issue half-yearly financial reports for the first six months of a financial year.

All interim information must be published within 60 days after the end of the period. Click to download EC Press Release (PDF 89k) or Full Text of Proposed Directive (PDF 179k).

The model financial statements conform to the requirements of Hong Kong Statements of Standard Accounting Practice (SSAPs) and related Interpretations issued by the Hong Kong Society of Accountants, the Companies Ordinance, and the Listing Rules of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. They also contain additional disclosures that are considered to be best practice, particularly where such disclosures are included in the illustrative examples provided with a specific Standard. Nearly all of the Hong Kong SSAPs and Interpretations issued in the past three years are identical to the counterpart International Accounting Standard. Click to download:

• (PDF 552k)
• (PDF 618k)

These rules apply to both domestic and foreign issuers. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires CEOs and CFOs of all public companies to certify in quarterly and annual reports that the report is accurate and complete and that the financial statements fairly present the financial condition and results of operations of the company.

ED 1's title was First-Time Application of IFRS. Under ED 1, a first-time adopter would comply with the latest version of each IFRS, with limited exemptions. ED 1 had proposed that some of the exemptions would require the first-time adopter to conclude that compliance with certain IFRSs would involve undue cost or effort. At its March 2003 meeting, the Board agreed that none of the exemptions would require a first-time adopter to demonstrate undue cost or effort. Our notes from the IASB's March 2003 meeting had said that, in the final IFRS, all choices will be free choices. That would not include hedge accounting, derecognition, and estimates. For clarification, we have amended our Project Update and Meeting Summary. The IASB expects to issue a final IFRS in the second quarter of 2003, effective for a company's first IFRS financial statements for a period beginning on or after 1 January 2004. Earlier application would be encouraged.

Click to download our Unofficial Summary of the Sessions on Insurance (PDF 27k). We previously had posted an Unofficial Summary of the First Seven Sessions (Non-Insurance Issues) (PDF 52k).

The IASB will meet with the chairs of its eight partner national accounting standard setters in London on 24 and 25 April 2003. Agenda topics for the meeting are:

• Convergence: review of progress
• IAS 32 and IAS 39, Financial Instruments – roundtable debriefing
• Insurance: review of progress
• Measurement objectives
• Partnership working arrangements
• Project priorities
• Reporting performance
• Reports on research projects

The IASB will hold its own monthly meeting on 30 April to 2 May 2003. The agenda for that meeting has not yet been announced.

The International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC) will meet at the IASB offices in London on 1 and 2 April 2003. The meeting agenda includes the following issues (click Here for summaries of those issues that IFRIC has previously discussed):

• Changes in decommissioning liabilities
• IAS 19 – multi-employer plan exemption
• Decommissioning and environmental rehabilitation funds
• Rights of use
• Emission rights
• Update on partner and liaison activities
• Non-monetary exchanges of assets
• Exchange rate for remeasuring foreign currency transactions and translation of foreign operations under IAS 21
• IAS 19 – money purchase plan with minimum guarantee
• Hyperinflation and deferred tax