The European Commission has posted to its website the summary record of the meeting of the Accounting Regulatory Committee (ARC) on 20 November 2007. Topics discussed by the ARC at that meeting included:
In a presentation to the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Committee in Brussels, EU Commissioner for Internal Markets and Services Charlie McCreevy updated the committee on four topics – the EU-US regulatory dialogue, financial turmoil, single market, Single European Payments Area (SEPA).
The October 2007 Edition of EFRAG Update, published by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, reports that EFRAG is likely to extend the work that it normally carries out in making IFRS endorsement recommendations to the European Commission to include 'some form of cost-benefit study' for individual IFRSs, including Interpretations.
The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has updated its report showing the status of endorsement, under the EU Accounting Regulation, of each IFRS, including standards, interpretations, and amendments.
The Swiss Stock Exchange (SWX) has released its Annual Communique identifying the areas on which they expect to focus in their regulatory reviews of annual financial reports for 2007 and semi-annual financial reports for 2008 of Swiss Exchange (SWX) listed companies.
The Internal Market Directorate of the European Commission has published an independent study on the ownership rules that apply to audit firms and the consequences of those rules on audit market concentration.
The International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC) will meet at the IASB's offices in London on Thursday and Friday 1-2 November 2007. The meeting is open to the public and will be webcast.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has published a report for the European Commission on the first year of implementation across the EU of International Financial Reporting Standards and the Fair Value Directive.
In remarks presented at the IASB's conference with world standard setters on 24 September 2007 in London, Julie A Erhardt, Deputy Chief Accountant of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, addressed Implementation and Enforcement of IFRSs.
The National Bank of the Republic of Belarus has ordered Belarusian banks to publish IFRS financial statements along with financial reports prepared using national standards starting in 2008.
Ian Mackintosh, Chairman of the United Kingdom Accounting Standards Board, has written to European Internal Markets and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy expressing disappointment at the negative stance toward the proposed IFRS for SMEs that Commissioner McCreevy expressed in his remarks at a public event in Portugal on 13 September 2007 (see our News Story of 14 September 2007).
In a presentation on Simplification of the Business Environment for Companies Charlie McCreevy, the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, expressed concern about whether the IASB's Proposed IFRS for SMEs is "simple enough to be applicable for the bulk of SMEs in the EU".
In a presentation to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament, Charlie McCreevy, the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, discussed the endorsement of IFRS 8 Operating Segments for use in the European Union.
In a recent letter in response to a consultation paper of the IOSCO Technical Committee, the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) explained the importance of sound financial reporting to public capital markets and reaffirmed the WFE's strong support of IFRSs.
The Spanish Stock Exchange (Bolsas y Mercados Españoles or BME) is in process of forming a new 'alternative market' for growth companies known as Mercado Alternativo Bursatil (MAB).
The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) and a number of other European accounting standard-setters – under the lead of the UK Accounting Standards Board (ASB) – have today published a brief paper discussing the rationale for including stewardship, or directors' accountability to shareholders, as a separate objective of financial reporting.
We have updated the following agenda project pages to reflect discussions and decisions at the June 2007 meeting of the International Accounting Standards Board:
Paul Pacter, a Director in Deloitte's IFRS Global Office and webmaster of www.iasplus.com made a presentation on IFRS Convergence Will Enhance Shareholder Value at the Annual Conference of the ACCA in Hong Kong on 23 June 2007.
In a joint press release, two leaders of the committee within the European Parliament that has responsibility for oversight of accounting matters have expressed some concern about the way the SEC has proposed to eliminate the required reconciliation to US GAAP for foreign registrants that use IFRSs.
The near-final draft of a forthcoming revisions to International Accounting Standard IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements has been posted to the secure eIFRS Online Subscriber Area of the IASB's website.
On 20 June 2007, the US Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to issue a 'proposing release' that would eliminate the requirement to reconcile financial statements to US GAAP if the financial statements are in full compliance with the English language version International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as published by the International Accounting Standards Board.