May AASB meeting sees tentative agreement to implement investment entities amendments

  • AASB (Australian Accounting Standards Board) (lt blue) Image

31 May 2013

The Australian Accounting Standards Board met on 28-29 May 2013. The Action Alert from the meeting has been released, and indicates that the AASB has tentatively decided to implement the IASB's investment entities amendments in the Australian context, without additional Australian disclosures. This position is different to the position put forward in an Australian-specific exposure draft published in December 2012.

The IASB's investment entities amendments to IFRS 10 Consolidated Financial Statements have long been contentious in the Australian context. In October 2011, Kevin Stevenson (AASB Chairman) published a press release expressing a number of concerns about the IASB's (then) proposals, and in the AASB subsequently put adoption of the amendments on hold in November 2012 until the Australia exposure draft could be published.

The exposure draft proposed additional disclosures in the form of the three primary financial statements that would be produced under full consolidation, although the basis of conclusions indicated split views among members of the AASB. The tentative decision to proceed with the IASB investment entities amendments without amendment is dependent upon the views of all members of the AASB, including those that were not present at the meeting.

Other topics discussed at the meeting included:

  • Consideration of various IASB and IFRS Interpretations Committee topics, including a number of concerns about the IASB's proposals in ED/2013/3 Financial Instruments: Expected Credit Losses
  • Further deliberations towards the finalisation of a revised standard for reporting by superannuation plans
  • Debate on issues related to the potential withdrawal of Australian-specific guidance on materiality.

Click for the AASB Action Alert (link to AASB website).

The AASB has also recently issued an agenda decision (link to AASB website), formalising its rationale for not proceeding with a standard on GAAP/GFS harmonisation for entities within the GGS.  The decision was taken on cost-benefit grounds, combined with an expectation that potential benefits relating to presentation and disclosure from pursuing the issue would most likely be overtaken by planned IASB work on a disclosure framework.

Correction list for hyphenation

These words serve as exceptions. Once entered, they are only hyphenated at the specified hyphenation points. Each word should be on a separate line.