ED 88 Arrangements Conveying Rights over Assets proposes amendments to IPSAS 47 Revenue and IPSAS 48 Transfer Expenses. The proposed amendments to IPSAS 47 are consistent with the principles already exposed in ED 84 Concessionary Leases and Right-of-Use Assets In-kind (Amendments to IPSAS 43 and IPSAS 23) that were strongly supported by stakeholders. Additionally, ED 88 proposes illustrative examples to accompany IPSAS 47 and IPSAS 48 on other types of arrangements conveying rights over assets that are common in the public sector. Feedback to both ED 88 and ED 84 will inform the final pronouncement on other lease-type arrangements.

Comments on the exposure draft are requested by 31 May 2024. Please click for additional information and access to the drafts in the press release on the IPSASB website.

The exposure drafts are titled as follows:

• Universal Sustainability Disclosure Standard Exposure Draft “Application of the Sustainability Disclosure Standards”
• Theme-based Sustainability Disclosure Standard Exposure Draft No. 1 “General Disclosures”
• Theme-based Sustainability Disclosure Standard Exposure Draft No. 2 “Climate-related Disclosures”

In a deviation from the ISSB's approach, the SSBJ decided to split the content of IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information into two standards: The requirements of IFRS S1 other than those included in the “core content” section were included in the proposed Application of the Sustainability Disclosure Standards standard, and the requirements in the “core content” section in IFRS S1 were included in the proposed General Disclosures standard. 

At this time, the exposure drafts are available in Japanese only.

Please click to access the exposure drafts via the press release on the SSBJ website.

Note: After publication of the exposure drafts, the Secretariat of the SSBJ has released the following documents in English:

• Summary of Differences between IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards and the SSBJ Exposure Drafts
• Table of Concordance between IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards and the SSBJ Exposure Drafts

The new members will initially serve a five-year term with the pos­si­bil­ity of being renewed for another three years. Nom­i­na­tions for IASB board mem­ber­ship close on 31 May 2024. For more in­for­ma­tion, see the press release on the IASB’s Web site.

Trustees’ re­spon­si­bil­i­ties include oversight of the organisation in the public interest, its strategic direction, ap­point­ments to the IASB, the ISSB, the IFRS In­ter­pre­ta­tions Committee and the IFRS Advisory Council, and ensuring the financing of the organisation and approving its budget. Trustees are expected to engage with the markets in their regional ju­ris­dic­tion.

Please click for ad­di­tional in­for­ma­tion in the press release on the IFRS Foun­da­tion website.

Background

In September 2022, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published the exposure draft of a third edition of the IFRS for SMEs accounting standard. For this exposure draft, the IASB had considered alignment with full IFRS Accounting Standards that are effective on or before 1 January 2020. Nevertheless, during the redeliberation of the proposals in the exposure draft, the IASB also looked at all amendments to full IFRSs with an effective date after 1 January 2020 to see whether any of these would warrant inclusion in the final amendments.

At its meeting in October 2023, the IASB decided to include the amendments to full IFRSs for supplier finance arrangements and lack of exchangeability. As these amendments had not been part of the original exposure draft and as the IASB wanted the public to be able to comment on these amendments before including them in the third edition of the IFRS for SMEs, the IASB decided to develop an addendum to the original exposure draft that would be exposed for public comment prior to finalising the amendments.

Suggested changes

The proposed amendments in exposure draft IASB/ED/2024/2 Addendum to the Exposure Draft 'Third edition of the IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard' are:

Alignment with IAS 7 as amended by Supplier Finance Arrangements

The IASB proposes that an SME would disclose the following information about its supplier finance arrangements:

• the terms and conditions - aggregated, but with separate disclosure of the terms and conditions of supplier finance arrangements that are dissimilar;
• at the beginning and end of the reporting period for reportable supplier finance arrangements:
  • the carrying amounts of the financial liabilities and where they are included in the statement of financial position,
  • the carrying amounts of the financial liabilities for which suppliers have already received payment from the finance providers; and
  • the range of payment due dates of the financial liabilities compared to trade payables that are not part of a supplier finance arrangement; and
• the type and effect of non-cash changes in the carrying amounts of the financial liabilities.

Alignment with with IAS 21 as amended by Lack of Exchangeability

The IASB proposes to amend the IFRS for SMEs:

• to specify when a currency is exchangeable into another currency;
• to set out the factors an SME would need to consider when assessing whether a currency is exchangeable and to specify how those factors affect the assessment;
• to specify how an SME determines the spot exchange rate when a currency is not exchangeable into another currency; and
• to require an SME to disclose information that would enable users of its financial statements to understand the effects of a lack of exchangeability.

Comments on the proposed changes are requested by 31 July 2024.

Effective date

The IASB proposes that the amendments have the same effective date as the other amendments to the IFRS for SMEs. 

Additional information

Please click for:

• IASB press release
• Access to the exposure draft on the IFRS Foundation website
• Our iGAAP in Focus newsletter explaining the proposed amendments
• Our IAS Plus project page for the Second comprehensive review of the IFRS for SMEs

The titles of the guides are as follows:

• Double materiality. The guiding principle for sustainability reporting, covering the interconnectedness of an entity's impacts on society and the environment with its financial performance.
• Due diligence. Can managing adverse impacts be simplified?, discussing how a business prevents, mitigates and accounts for its impacts.
• CSRD. Implications for companies outside the EU, setting out the benefits for policymakers in harmonising their sustainability disclosure regulations with the EU.

Please click to access the guides via the press release on the GRI website.

The 2024 IFRS Accounting Taxonomy is con­sis­tent with IFRSs as issued by the IASB at 1 January 2024, including those issued but not yet effective. The 2024 IFRS Taxonomy also in­cor­po­rates the changes made to the IFRS Taxonomy in 2023 re­flect­ing amended IFRSs and common reporting practice by companies that apply IFRS Accounting Standards as well as general taxonomy im­prove­ments.

For more in­for­ma­tion, see the press release and the 2024 IFRS Accounting Taxonomy page on the IFRS Foun­da­tion website.

The IASB is presently soliciting feedback on proposed amendments to IFRS 3 Business Combinations. These amendments would necessitate companies to divulge the objective and associated performance targets of their most significant acquisitions, along with whether these targets are achieved in subsequent years. Further, companies would be mandated to furnish details regarding anticipated synergies for all substantial acquisitions. Nevertheless, the proposals ensure that companies need not disclose information that could jeopardize their acquisition objectives. Additionally, the IASB suggests complementary adjustments to IAS 36 Impairment of Assets to refine the impairment test. Interested parties have until 15 July 2024 to provide their comments on the ED.

For more in­for­ma­tion, see the press release and Investor Per­spec­tives article on the IFRS Foun­da­tion’s website.

European enforcers examined the financial statements of 703 issuers representing an average examination rate of 17% of all IFRS issuers with securities listed on regulated markets. These examinations resulted in 250 actions taken to address material departures from IFRS. As in the past, most infringements were identified in the areas of accounting for financial instruments, impairment of non-financial assets, presentation of financial statements and revenue recognition.

Enforcers also assessed the non-financial information for 389 issuers, covering approximately 17% of the total estimated number of issuers required to publish a non-financial statement, resulting in 91 enforcement measures.

The report also looks at ESEF reporting as for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2021, issuers must prepare their annual financial reports according to XHTML requirements and mark-up those IFRS consolidated financial statements contained therein according to iXBRL requirements.

Please click to access the full report on the ESMA website.

The vision statement follows a public commitment from the Hong Kong Government in October 2023 to develop a roadmap for the adoption of the ISSB standards. In the vision statement, the FSTB proposes a holistic approach in developing the Hong Kong sustainability disclosure standards, including the following key features:

• Coverage of all financial services sub-sectors
• Phased implementation
• Sustainability assurance to enable credible implementation
• Capacity building to support the industry and companies
• Use of technological solutions, including a Climate and environmental risk questionnaire for non-listed companies and small and medium enterprises and Greenhouse gas emissions calculation and estimation tools

The roadmap is expected in 2024 and will be prepared by a dedicated working group. Assuming the role of the sustainability reporting standard-setter, the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA) will develop the standards as well as complementary application and implementation guidance. In a statement on its website, the HKICPA welcomed the FSTB vision statement.

The vision statement is available on the Hong Kong Government website.