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Stay Tuned Online – IFRS and UK GAAP update

07 Apr 2011

The Deloitte London IFRS Centre of Excellence is running a series of hour-long Internet-based financial reporting updates, aimed at helping finance teams keep up to speed with IFRSs and other financial reporting issues.

Each update lasts no more than an hour, and sessions are normally held three times a year, approximately at the end of March, July, and November. We intend to make a recording of each session available on IAS Plus for a period of at least four months from the date of the presentation. The topics covered in the March 2011 webcast:
  • UK developments
  • Offsetting financial assets and financial liabilities
  • IAS 39 replacement
  • Hedge accounting
  • Amortised cost and impairment
  • Recent and forthcoming IFRS developments

To access the recording click here. There is a permanent link on our UK Country Page.

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Canadian regulator issues guides on IFRS

06 Apr 2011

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has issued two high-level guides on the impacts of IFRS:

The guides outline a number of questions for analysts and investors to consider and are available on the OSC website.

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Agenda for the April IASB meeting

06 Apr 2011

The IASB's regular monthly meeting is scheduled for 12-15 April 2011 in London, much of it a joint meeting with the FASB.

You can access the agenda on our April 2011 IASB meeting page. We will also post Deloitte observer notes on this page as they are available.

 

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Swiss and US regulators reach a statement of protocol agreement

06 Apr 2011

The Swiss Federal Audit Oversight Authority and Financial Market Supervisory Authority and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board of the United States (PCAOB) have entered into a Statement of Protocol, establishing a cooperative framework for supervisory oversight of auditors that practice in each country.

The Statement of Protocol between the regulators allows the PCAOB to commence joint inspections of accounting firms in Switzerland that audit, or participate in audits, of companies whose securities trade on U.S. markets. Also, the agreement includes provisions governing the sharing of confidential information between both regulators.

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Notes from the additional April IASB meeting

06 Apr 2011

The IASB held an additional meeting in London on 6 April 2011. We've posted Deloitte observer notes from the meeting (click through for direct access to the notes for each topic):

The IASB held an additional meeting in London on 6 April 2011. We've posted Deloitte observer notes from the meeting (click through for direct access to the notes for each topic):

Wednesday, 6 April 2011 (IASB only)

The next regular IASB meeting is scheduled for 11-15 April 2011.

Click here to go to the preliminary and unofficial Notes Taken by Deloitte Observers for the entire meeting.

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UK ASB publishes a report on reducing clutter in financial reports

06 Apr 2011

The Accounting Standards Board (ASB) of the United Kingdom Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published a report Cutting Clutter: Combating clutter in annual reports.

The report follows on the from the issue of Louder than Words: Principles and Actions for Making Corporate Reports Less Complex and More Relevant, which was published in June 2009 (see our earlier story).

The report outlines recommendations and methodologies for reduced clutter under existing reporting requirements (including IFRSs):

  • A call for action to reduce barriers to reducing clutter – focusing on materiality, tackling longstanding explanatory material in printed annual reports and engaging with other stakeholders
  • Changing some of the behaviours that currently serve as barriers to cutting clutter – addressing issues such as "simply repeating disclosures made in prior years" to "fear of challenge from regulators"
  • Disclosure aids to enable preparers to tackle clutter – providing illustrative examples on governance, accounting polices and share-based payments.

In relation to materiality, the report notes the following:

IAS 1 states that "An entity need not provide a specific disclosure required by an IFRS if the information is not material." Yet it is exactly these immaterial disclosures that we observe and define as clutter. Is this message not understood or not getting through, or does it need to be refined to change the default of including everything?

One of the key reasons for including all disclosures given by interviewees was a "lack of confidence in making the judgement between disclosures that are material and those that are not." It is apparent that the lack of clarity around what materiality means from a disclosure perspective continues to be a significant barrier in both preparing and auditing financial statements.

The push to reduce the volume of disclosures in financial reports has been increasing in recent times. In response to a request from the IASB, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) and the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA) are working on project with the aim of reducing the volume of disclosure requirements in IFRSs (see our earlier story).

The ASB hopes that the report will stimulate debate and action on this issue, and welcomes any comments by 30 September 2011. Click for ASB press release (link to FRC website).

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IASB issues near-final draft on fair value measurement

05 Apr 2011

The IASB has issued Near-Final Draft: International Financial Reporting Standard X Fair Value Measurement.

This IFRS:
  • defines fair value,
  • sets out a single IFRS framework for measuring fair value, and
  • requires disclosures about fair value measurements.

It is currently made available to its subscribers.

For more information, view our Fair Value Measurements project page.

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Notes from the IFRS Foundation Trustees and Monitoring Board meetings

05 Apr 2011

The IFRS Foundation Trustees met in London on 31 March 2011. In addition, the Monitoring Board and IFRS Foundation Trustees met on 1 April 2011. We've posted Deloitte observer notes from the meetings (click through for direct access to the notes for each topic):

IFRS Foundation Trustees meeting (Thursday, 31 March 2011)

IFRS Foundation Trustees – Monitoring Board meeting (Friday, 1 April 2011)

The next scheduled meeting of the IFRS Foundation Trustees is scheduled to be held in the United States on 13-14 July 2011.

Click here to go to the preliminary and unofficial notes taken by Deloitte observers for the IFRS Foundation Trustees meeting and the IFRS Foundation Trustees - Monitoring Board meeting.

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Responses to the EU consultation on country-by-country reporting

04 Apr 2011

In October 2010, the European Commission started a public consultation in order to gather stakeholders' views on country-by-country reporting by multinational companies. Country-by-country reporting is a concept that would require multinational companies to disclose financial information on their operations in third countries in their annual financial statements.

The Commission has now posted to its website the responses received and a summary report of the consultation. The report states:

The overall result of the consultation shows a rather diverse pattern of opinions (especially on questions 1 to 3), reflecting the opinions of several categories of respondents: where preparers, accountants and auditors were in general opposed to requirements to report on a country-by-country basis, users and other respondents were in favour.

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However, a detailed analysis shows that the industry most directly concerned – the extractive industry, in particular oil and gas – expressed in general a constructive view as they consider this to be conducive to improving domestic accountability and governance in resource-rich countries.
In March 2011, the Competitiveness (Internal Market, Industry, Research and Space) Council of the European Union had also come to the conclusion that country-by-country reporting by mining and oil and gas companies will help tackling the challenges on raw materials and in commodity markets.
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Deloitte publications update

02 Apr 2011

The following Deloitte publications are now available:

Global publications

Deloitte (Australia)

  • What's new in financial reporting for June 2011 – a guide to new and revised accounting pronouncements and other financial reporting considerations for the June 2011 reporting season
  • Monthly Roundup (March 2011) – a summary of financial reporting developments during March 2011, including discussion of the revised IASB work plan, proposed guidance on additional financial information from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) and the UK/NZ study on reducing IFRS disclosures
  • Extracting Value Issue 11 – an update on the IASB's leasing project for resources companies

Deloitte (United States)

  • Toward greener pastures: How to leverage sustainability initiatives for finance transformation (PDF 132k) – identifies six key areas in which sustainability initiatives can trigger finance transformation and ways that those triggers can create opportunities to improve reporting, transparency, and business performance, as well as mitigate business risk
  • Webcast — New FASB-IASB Lease Accounting Standard: How Should You Prepare? – being held on Thursday 7 April 2011, this webcast is tailored for the real estate industry and will discuss an overview of the proposed standard on leases, reactions from industry executives and expected implementation issues (registration)

 

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