The full agenda for the meeting is summarised below:

Agenda papers for this meeting are available on the IASB's website.

The Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) is following the review of the EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive closely and proposes eight changes to ensure that the Directive is fit for purpose to achieve Europe’s ambitious sustainable finance goals. Please click for further information on the CDSB website.

The CDSB and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) have jointly released an environmental reporting handbook to help companies improve their disclosure in line with the EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive. The EU Environmental Reporting Handbook helps companies learn from their peers to better understand how to report in line with the Directive. Please click for further information on the CDSB website. 

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) has launched the SASB Implementation Primer, an online resource for companies seeking to incorporate SASB standards into their core communications with investors. Please click to access the press release and the implementation primer on the SASB website.

The Integrated Reporting Committee (IRC) of South Africa has updated its starter’s guide initially published in 2014, to provide organisations with practical suggestions on preparing an integrated report. The guide is aligned with the King IV Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa and presents updated examples five years after publication of the International <IR> Framework. Please click to access Preparing an Integrated Report – A Starter’s Guide (Updated) on the IRC website.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has set up a Sustainability Accounting Standards Board to help companies in achieving sustainable development goals. The Board will set standards that will establish disclosure requirements in line with the sustainable development goals of the United Nations. The initial composition of the Board is available here.

Deloitte Norway studied the annual and sustainability reports of the 50 largest companies headquartered in the country, analysing their maturity in terms of integrated reporting and sustainability reporting. Greenwashing or measurable results? can be accessed here.

Deloitte UK has commented on Advancing Nature-related Financial Disclosures and use of the CDSB Framework published by the CDSB. Deloitte encourages the CDSB to work with others to push with urgency for consolidation and harmonisation of standards and frameworks, in order to have one definitive global standard on climate reporting. Please click to access the comment letter here.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) is consulting on proposed guidance Extended External Reporting Assurance. The purpose of the guidance is to promote consistent high-quality application of ISAE 3000 so as to strengthen the influence of EER assurance engagements on the quality of EER reports, enhance user trust in the resulting assurance reports, and engender greater confidence in the credibility of, trust in and reliance upon EER reports by their intended users. Please click for more information on the IAASB website.

The publication is in the form of frequently asked questions, which for preparers are:

• How to assess whether the impacts of COVID-19 are material to the entity?
• When to adjust the financial statements, including where events continue to develop after the reporting period ends?
• What disclosures might be required of the entity (including any continuous disclosure obligations for listed entities)?

The publication also notes that the COVID-19 outbreak is an example of an emerging risk addressed by the AASB's 2019 bulletin Climate-related and other emerging risks disclosures: assessing financial statement materiality using AASB/IASB Practice Statement 2.

Please click to download The Impact of Coronavirus on Financial Reporting and the Auditor’s Considerations from the AASB website.

Our pre-meeting summaries are available on our March meeting notes page and will be supplemented with our popular meeting notes after the meeting.

The aim of the new project of the European Corporate Reporting Lab is to identify good practices on the reporting of non-financial risks and opportunities and their linkage to the business model from a sustainability perspective and addressing what is commonly known as ESG factors. The project is expected to consider the information needs and expectations of a wide range of users and other stakeholders, the extent to which they are addressed by current reporting practices, and the challenges faced by companies in providing that information.

The deadline for applications has been moved to 4 May 2020 (originally 10 April 2020).

Please click for more information in the press release on the EFRAG website.

Some of the key impacts include, but are not limited to:

• Interruptions of production.
• Supply chain disruptions.
• Unavailability of personnel.
• Reductions in sales, earnings, or productivity.
• Closure of facilities and stores.
• Delays in planned business expansions.
• Inability to raise financing.
• Increased volatility in the value of financial instruments.
• Reduced tourism, disruptions in nonessential travel and sports, cultural and other leisure activities.

In addition, entities should consider the increasingly broad effects of COVID-19 as a result of its negative impact on the global economy and major financial markets.

Entities must carefully consider their unique circumstances and risk exposures when analysing how recent events may affect their financial reporting. Specifically, financial reporting and related financial statement disclosures need to convey all material effects of COVID-19.

Read more in Deloitte's IFRS in Focus newsletter.

The March CMAC meeting (26 March 2020) will be remote access only for observers. CMAC members will only attend if they are based in London and meet the criteria for visits to the IFRS Foundation offices.

The March IASB meeting (17 and 19 March 2020) is currently expected to proceed as planned, however, observers are reminded that digital access is available. Should the IFRS Foundation offices need to be closed, the meeting will be held by video conference and will feature a reduced agenda.

All visitors to the IFRS Foundation offices will need to confirm before arrival that they haven't been to a category 1 or 2 hotspot in the past 14 days and have not experienced any flu-like symptoms in the past seven days.

Please click for the full update on the IASB website.

Maintenance and Consistent Application: In 2017, the IFRS Interpretations Committee received a question about a particular commodity loan transaction and observed that the transaction may not be captured within the scope of any IFRS Standard. The staff recommend that the Board consider referring to commodity transactions as a potential project in its Request for Information (RFI) on the 2020 Agenda Consultation.

Agenda Consultation: The staff set out the plan for the 2020. They expect to publish the RFI in September, with a comment deadline of January 2021. After the Board has considered the feedback the work plan and feedback statement are expected to be published in Q4 2021.

Disclosure Initiative—Subsidiaries that are SMEs: In the January 2020 meeting, the Board agreed to move the project from the research programme to the standard-setting programme. The objective is to develop a reduced disclosure IFRS Standard that would apply on a voluntary basis to subsidiaries that are SMEs, adapted from the disclosure requirements of the IFRS for SMEs Standard. The staff expect to start drafting an ED or a DP in Q4 2020.

Rate-regulated Activities: The staff have been drafting the ED for the accounting model for regulatory assets and regulatory liabilities since last July. The staff are asking the Board to clarify whether some components included in the regulated rates in a period form part of total allowed compensation for the goods or services supplied by an entity in the same period or in a different period. In particular, the staff are seeking clarification about whether regulatory returns and performance incentives included in the regulated rates for a period form part of the total allowed compensation for to the goods or services supplied in the same period.

Management Commentary: The Board will continue its discussions about the objective of management commentary, which the staff recommend should be to support primary users in assessing an entity’s prospects of future cash flows and assessing management’s stewardship of the entity’s economic resources. The primary users are existing and potential investors, lenders and other creditors and they are expected to have a reasonable knowledge of business and economic activities. The staff will also introduce their thinking on developing disclosure objectives for various types of content to be included in management commentary.

Disclosure Initiative—Targeted Standards-level Review of Disclosures: The staff will ask permission to begin the balloting process on Exposure Draft (ED) Targeted Standards-level Review of Disclosures—Amendments to IAS 19 and IFRS 13. The staff recommend a comment period of 180 days.

Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Equity: At the December 2019 Board meeting, the Board discussed the staff’s preliminary analysis on how the fixed-for-fixed requirement in IAS 32 could be clarified. At this meeting the staff recommend that the Board articulate its foundation principle by stating that in a derivative on own equity that meets the fixed-for-fixed condition, the amount of functional currency units to be exchanged with each underlying equity instrument is fixed and does not vary other than (if applicable) with preservation adjustments and passage of time adjustments. The staff also set out recommendations for how the preservation and passage of time adjustments should be expressed. The staff will also present their plan for outreach with stakeholders on potential disclosures that can be developed as part of the FICE project.

Post-implementation review of IFRS 10, 11 and 12: The staff recommend that the Board proceed with the PIR and publish an RFI to gather more information about the application of these Standards.

Amendments to IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts: The staff recommend that the Board defer the effective date of IFRS 17 (incorporating the amendments) to annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2023 and extend the fixed expiry date of the temporary exemption from applying IFRS 9 in IFRS 4 to the same date. The staff expect that the amendments will be issued in the second quarter of 2020.

More information

Our pre-meeting summaries are available on our March meeting notes page and will be supplemented with our popular meeting notes after the meeting.

Specif­i­cally, the Trustees are seeking in­di­vid­u­als who have a preparer focus. Members are expected to attend ap­prox­i­mately six two-day meetings each year held in London. Terms of mem­ber­ship will begin 1 July 2020 and will expire on 30 June 2023. Mem­ber­ship is unpaid, but the IFRS Foun­da­tion meets members' expenses of travel on IFRS IC business.

Ap­pli­ca­tions are accepted until 9 April 2020.

For more in­for­ma­tion, see the press release on the IASB’s website.

Item for Continuing Discussion

IFRS 16 Leases—Sale and leaseback with variable payments (Agenda Paper 2): The Committed concluded that the accounting of a sale and leaseback transaction at the date of transaction is clear. However, it recommended standard-setting to clarify the subsequent measurement of the seller-lessee's liability arising from such sale and leaseback with variable payments.

New Issue

IAS 12 Income Taxes—Deferred tax related to a subsidiary's undistributed profits (Agenda Paper 3): The Committee concluded that a reporting entity should recognise deferred tax for the temporary differences arising from undistributed profits of a subsidiary and will publish a tentative agenda decision with amendments suggested in the meeting and explaining why neither an interpretation of, nor an amendment to, IAS 12 is necessary.

Agenda Decisions to Finalise

IAS 21 The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates and IAS 29 Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies—Translation of a hyperinflationary foreign operation (Agenda Paper 4): The Committee decided, unanimously, to finalise the agenda decision with amendments to wording.

IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers—Training costs to fulfil a contract (Agenda Paper 5): The Committee decided, by a majority vote, to finalise all three agenda decisions, with some amended wording.

More information

Please click to access the detailed notes taken by Deloitte observers.