Deloitte comment letter on the IASB's third agenda consultation

Published on: 24 Sep 2021

We have responded to the request for information the IASB published in March 2021 to seek broad public input on the strategic direction and overall balance of its future work programme.

Overall, we believe that the Board’s time is appropriately allocated to the different activities and that this allocation will remain largely appropriate for the next few years. However, we believe that two key areas will require further direct attention by the Board:

  • Sustainability reporting related issues: As noted earlier, we support the IFRS Foundation continued efforts to establish a sustainability standard-setter under its institutional framework. We also noted that it will be crucial that the two Boards cooperate on fundamental elements that will be common to both Boards to ensure connectivity between financial and sustainability reporting. Amongst others, this would include work on the conceptual framework and on management commentary (beyond the project currently on the work plan of the IASB Board). We believe that the proposed projects on disclosure of intangible assets and on climate and other sustainability-related risks disclosures discussed in the request for information would also benefit from the collaboration between the Board and a future new board working on international sustainability reporting standards.
  • Digital reporting: We note that currently the time spent by the Board in this area is largely focused on taxonomy. We believe that Board should explore how digital reporting is changing the way investors consume information with a view to determine how this should be reflected in the way IFRS Standards are written. This seems to be a critical factor to consider as part of the Board’s project on improving disclosure.

Please click to download our full comment letter, which also includes a list of the key projects that we believe should be added to Board’s work plan, below.

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