· 31 August 2010: The IFRS Foundation has published proposed enhancements to the criteria for the IASB's annual improvements process. This process provides a mechanism for non-urgent but necessary amendments to International Financial Reporting Standards to be grouped together and issued as a single package.
The proposals recommend modifications to the IASB's due proces handbook which would enhance the criteria for determining whether a matter relating to the clarification or correction of an IFRS sould be addressed using the annual improvements process.
The consultation document is open for comment until 30 November 2010, and can be accessed via the 'Comment on a proposal' section under the 'Get involved' heading on the IASB website homepage.
· 26 August 2010: The IASB has published an exposure draft of proposed amendments to IFRS 1 First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards. The proposals would replace existing references which require restatement of derecognition transactions from 1 January 2004, and the restatement of 'day 1' differences on the initial recognition of financial instruments. The effect of the proposals would be that first-time adopters would not need to revisit transactions which took place before their date of transition to IFRS (which is the start of the earliest comparative period presented in their first IFRS financial statements).
The exposure draft is open for comment until 27 October 2010. For further information, and to view/download the exposure draft, please click here to be redirected to the IASB's website.
· 26 August 2010: The IFRS Interpretations Committee, the interpretative body of the IASB, has published proposed guidance on the accounting for costs incurred in the process of removing waste from a surface mine in order to gain access to ore deposits (stripping costs). The proposals would result in those costs being accounted for as an additional component of an existing asset, with the write down of this component being linked to the reserves that directly benefit from the 'stripping campaign'.
The draft Interpretation is open for comment until 30 November 2010. For further information, and to view/download the exposure draft, please click here to be redirected to the IASB's website.
· 18 August 2010: The IASB will hold an additional meeting at its London offices on Tuesday 24 August 2010. The topics to be discussed at this meeting include hedge accounting, amortised cost and impairment and amendments to IAS 12.
The meeting is open to public observation however registration is required. For additional information, to register as an observer, or to obtain the agenda papers to be discussed at the meeting, please click on the link to be redirected to the meeting diary section of the IASB's website.
· 18 August 2010: On 17 August 2010, the IASB and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) published for public comment, an exposure draft (ED) on the joint proposals related to the accounting for lease contracts. Both boards believe that the joint proposals, if adopted, will greatly improve the financial reporting information available to investors about the financial effects of lease contracts.
Existing accounting requirements depend on the classification of a lease. Under current IFRSs and US GAAP, leases which are classified as operating leases result in the lessee not recording any assets or liabilities in the statement of financial position (balance sheet). As a result, many investors have to adjust the financial statements (using disclosures and other available information) to estimate the effects of lessees’ operating leases for the purpose of investment analysis.
The ED proposes a ‘right-of-use’ approach which would result in consistent accounting for leases by both lessees and lessors. Among other changes, this approach would result in the liability for payments arising under the lease contract and the right to use the underlying asset being included in the lessee’s statement of financial position, thus providing more complete and useful information to investors and other users of financial statements.
In developing their proposals, both boards considered the responses to more than 300 comment letters received on the discussion paper, Leases: Preliminary Views, published in March 2009, and on extensive input from constituents.
During the ED’s comment period, both boards will undertake further outreach activities, including public round-table meetings, to ensure that the views of all interested parties are taken into consideration before the new standard is completed. Also during the comment period, the boards are seeking entities that would be willing to take part, on a confidential basis, in field work to discuss and test the provisions of their proposals for lease accounting. The purpose of the field work would be to assess the operationality and the costs and benefits of the proposed new standard. Entities interested in volunteering should contact Aida Vatrenjak (avatrenjak@ifrs.org) or Danielle Helmus (dehelmus@fasb.org) by 15 September 2010.
ED/2010/9 Leases, is open for public comment until 15 December 2010.
For additional information, please click on the link to be redirected to press release on the IASB website. To obtain a download of the ED and other related materials please click on this link to be redirected to the Leases section of the IASB website. Alternatively please click on the link to be redirect to the FASB website.
· 17 August 2010: On Wednesday 18 August 2010, the IASB staff will host a webcast to discuss the new Leases exposure draft. This webcast will summarise the proposals on lease accounting and follows on from their previous webcasts presented on 10 June 2010 and 31 March 2010. This webcast will be followed by a Q&A session.
To ensure participants from as many time zones as possible, there will be two webcasts at 10:30 am and 3:30 pm (London time).
There's no charge to attend the webcast however registration is required. For additional details and to register as a participant, please click on the link to be redirected to the IASB’s website.
· 11 August 2010: BDO is pleased to announce that the following BDO Technical Bulletins have been posted to the Publications section of our international website:
- IFRB 2010/12 Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting, The Reporting Entity;
- IFRB 2010/14 Measurement of Liabilities in IAS 37, Limited Re-exposure of Proposed Amendments to IAS 37;
- IFRB 2010/15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers;
- IFRB 2010/16 Presentation of Items of Other Comprehensive Income, Proposed Amendments to IAS 1; and
- IFRB 2010/17 Measurement Uncertainty Analysis Disclosure of Fair Value Measurements, Limited Re-exposure of Proposed Disclosures.
The bulletins are free to download. Please click on the link to be redirected to the IFB Bulletins in the Publications section on our international website.
· 11 August 2010: On 9 August 2010, the IASB published on its website the fifth issue of the IFRS for SMEs Update newsletter. The IFRS for SMEs Update is a regular IASB staff summary of news related to International Financial Reporting Standards for Small and Medium-sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs).
The content in this month’s update includes:
- IFRS Foundation appoints members of the SME Implementation Group;
- Upcoming train-the-trainers workshop in Rio de Janeiro; and
- Where to obtain IFRS for SMEs materials.
To view the current or previously issued IFRS for SMEs Updates, or to receive the IFRS for SMEs Update via email, please click link to be redirected to the IASB's website.
· 11 August 2010: The staff of the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the IASB will hold a joint webcast on Thursday 12 August from 17:00 to 17:45 (London time) to discuss proposals in the Exposure Draft, Revenue from Contracts with Customers and their potential affect on the technology industry.
The live webscast is free however registration is required. To register for the webcast, please click on the link to be redirected to the FASB's website.
· 9 August 2010: On 6 August 2010, the Trustees of the IFRS Foundation, the body responsible for the promotion of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and oversight of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), announced the conclusions of their meeting in Washington, DC on 6 and 7 July 2010.
The primary topics of this meeting included:
- Continued commitment to convergence;
- Trustee appointments;
- Strategic review;
- Report of the Chairman of the IFRS Advisory Council; and
-Report of the Due Process Oversight Committee.
The next scheduled meeting of the Trustees will take place in Seoul, Republic of Korea, on 12 and 13 October 2010.
For additional details, including a link to a report by IASB Chairman Sir David Tweedie, please click on the link to be redirected to the IASB’s website.
· 9 August 2010: On 5 August 2010, The IFRS Foundation, the body responsible for the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and the oversight of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), announced the membership of the newly created SME Implementation Group. The Group’s is to support and monitor the international adoption and implementation of the IFRS for Small and Medium-sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs). Its main responsibilities are:
(a) to develop non-mandatory guidance for implementing the IFRS for SMEs in the form of questions and answers that will be made publicly available on a timely basis; and
(b) to make recommendations to the IASB if and when needed regarding amendments to the IFRS for SMEs.
The IFRS Foundation invited applications for membership of the Group in March 2010 and received almost 90 applications. The 21 members of the Group were selected on the basis of their knowledge and experience in the financial reporting of SMEs. The members of the Group will serve a renewable term of two years from July 2010.
For additional details, please click on the link to be redirected to the IASB’s website.
· 4 August 2010: BDO is pleased to announce that the following BDO Technical Bulletins have been posted to the Publications section of our international website:
- IFRB 2010/08 Limited Exemption from Comparative IFRS 7 Disclosures for First-time Adopters (Amendment to IFRS 1);
- IFRB 2010/09 Financial Instruments: Amortised Cost and Impairment;
- IFRB 2010/10 Improvements to International Financial Reporting Standards; and
- IFRB 2010/11 Fair Value Option for Financial Liabilities.
The bulletins are free to download. Please click on the link to be redirected to the IFR Bulletins in the Publications section on our international website.
· 2 August 2010: The IFRS Foundation has recently published for download, additional modules as part of its comprehensive set of training materials for the IFRS for SMEs. The IASB’s goal is to have one training module for each of the 35 sections in the IFRS for SMEs Standard. So far there are 20 modules available with the remaining 15 modules planned for release over the coming months. Each module is one PDF file and can be downloaded without charge from the IFRS Foundation's Website.
Available modules cover Sections 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 28, and 32 of the IFRS for SMEs. For additional details or to download any of the training modules please click on the link to be redirected to IFRS for SMEs training modules page on the IASB’s website.
· 2 August 2010: On 28 July 2010, the IASB released a survey for financial statement users with respect to the offsetting of financial assets and liabilities. The survey focuses on whether and how users of financial statements adjust for offsetting of financial instruments.
The survey is intended to help the IASB better understand what information is useful to users and will further aid the board in their decisions on the appropriateness and usefulness of offsetting financial instruments.
For additional information, please click on the link to be redirected to the asset and liability offsetting section of the IFRS 9 Financial Instruments project page on the IASB’s website.
· 2 August 2010: On 6 August 2010 the staff of the IASB staff will host a webcast to introduce the proposed standard on improvements to the accounting for insurance contracts.
There will be two webcasts at 10:00 am and 1:00 pm (London time) to accommodate participants in different time zones. There is no charge to attend the web presentation however registration to participate is required.
For additional information and to register as a participant please click on the link to be redirected to the IASB’s website.