Agenda consultation 2011

Background

In February 2010 the Trustees of the IFRS Foundation, the IASB's oversight body, announced enhancements to their governance arrangements, including the decision to undertake a three-yearly public consultation on the IASB's future technical agenda, in addition to consulting the Trustees and the IFRS Advisory Council annually on the existing and future agenda.

On 20 June 2011, the IASB formally announced that it would be undertaking for the first time a public agenda consultation on its future work plan.

The primary focus of the consultation is a 'Request for Views' document which will consider the agenda from two perspectives: (1) the overall strategic direction and balance of the agenda, and (2) understanding the financial reporting needs of stakeholders and how these might be balanced with constraining factors such as stakeholder and IASB resource capacity and the IASB's existing priorities.

The IASB published its Request for Views on its agenda consultation on 26 July 2011.

Current status of the project

The IASB issued a 'Feedback Statement' on 18 December 2012, which concluded the agenda consultation and resulted in five broad themes emerging from respondents:

First, respondents asked that a decade of almost continuous change in financial reporting should be followed by a period of relative calm.
Second, there was almost unanimous support for the IASB to prioritise work on the Conceptual Framework, which would provide a consistent and practical basis for standard setting.
Third, the IASB was asked to make some targeted improvements that respond to the needs of new adopters of IFRSs.
Fourth, the IASB was asked to pay greater attention to the implementation and maintenance of the Standards.
Finally, the IASB was asked to improve the way in which the IASB develops new Standards, by conducting more rigorous cost-benefit analysis and problem definition earlier on in the standard-setting process.

Summary of projects included in the Feedback Statement

Standards-levels projects	Research projects
MoU and joint projects with FASB Financial instruments Leases Revenue recognition Insurance New projects IAS 41 — Bearer biological assets Rate-regulated activities — Comprehensive project Rate-regulated activities — Interim standard IAS 27 — Equity method in separate financial statements	Priority projects Emissions trading schemes Business combinations under common control Discount rates Equity method of accounting Intangible assets, including extractive activities and research & development activities Financial instruments with the characteristics of equity Foreign currency translation Non-financial liabilities (amendments to IAS 37) Financial reporting in high inflationary economies. Longer term projects Income taxes Post-employment benefits Share-based payments
Other
Priority project Conceptual Framework Other activities Islamic (Shariah-compliant) transactions and instruments Disclosure

Standards-levels projects

Research projects

MoU and joint projects with FASB

New projects

Priority projects

Emissions trading schemes
Business combinations under common control
Discount rates
Equity method of accounting
Intangible assets, including extractive activities and research & development activities
Financial instruments with the characteristics of equity
Foreign currency translation
Non-financial liabilities (amendments to IAS 37)
Financial reporting in high inflationary economies.

Longer term projects

Other

Priority project

Conceptual Framework

Other activities

Project milestones

Date	Development	Comments
February 2010	IASCF Trustees Constitution Review introduces three-yearly consultation process
20 June 2011	IASB formally announces public consultation process
26 July 2011	Request for Views Agenda Consultation 2011 published	Comment deadline 30 November 2011
18 December 2012	Feedback Statement: Agenda Consultation 2011 published	Conclusion of agenda consultation

Related Discussions

Research programme

23 Jul 2014

The Board was presented a paper setting out how the IASB should prioritise the projects in the research programme.

The research programme

22 Apr 2014

The Board received a presentation by the Senior Director for Technical Activities on the IASB's research programme. He outlined how the research activities had developed over time and how they became a more formal part of the due process. He gave an overview of the current inventory of research projects and discussed their staffing. As a particular example, the project manager on the research project for distinguishing liabilities from equity provided an overview of the project plan. No decisions were taken.

Conceptual framework

28 Sep 2012

The staff presented their proposals to the Board as to how to approach the project on the conceptual framework. The staff recommended that the conceptual framework project should focus on elements of financial statements, measurement, reporting entity, presentation and disclosure. They also noted that the aim would be to work towards a single discussion paper covering all of the areas (rather than the previous joint IASB and FASB phase project on the conceptual framework), rather than separate discussion papers for each area.