National Standard-setters newsletter—August 2019

Update on the Board's work plan

The Board has recently issued several exposure drafts, which are now open for comment.

We encourage you to participate in the consultation process and submit comment letters.

The following amendments to IFRS Standards are expected to be issued later in 2019

• Classification of Liabilities as Current or Non-current (Amendments to IAS 1)
• IBOR Reform and its Effects on Financial Reporting

What are agenda decisions?

Agenda decisions are issued by the IFRS Interpretations Committee (Committee).

The Committee works with the Board to support the application of IFRS Standards. In supporting the implementation and application of IFRS Standards, the Board and the Committee aim to be helpful by answering questions and issuing amendments to Standards if necessary, but without undermining the appropriate use of judgement by preparers or unduly disrupting the implementation of a new Standard.

All Committee projects begin as a result of questions asked about a Standard. To ensure transparency, the Committee considers all questions at public meetings.

The Committee then decides whether standard-setting is needed to address the question, or whether to take an alternative approach. 

The Committee may decide against recommending standard-setting if it concludes standard-setting is:

• unnecessary—typically because, in the Committee’s view, IFRS Standards and IFRIC^® Interpretations provide enough information for a company to determine its accounting or because there is no evidence that a widespread accounting problem exists; or
• unhelpful—for example, because introducing new or amended requirements might assist one company with a particular type of transaction, while raising questions for other companies with slightly different types of transactions.

To explain why it did not recommend standard-setting, the Committee publishes an agenda decision.

Agenda decisions are subject to due process. They are open for comment for 60 days and, before they are finalised, the Committee considers comments received about the draft (tentative) agenda decision in a public meeting. 

Agenda decisions often include information to help companies applying IFRS Standards. For example, they may explain how the principles and requirements in IFRS Standards apply to the question submitted.

To find out more about when to implement changes in accounting policy that result from agenda decisions, read the article Feature: Agenda decisions—time is of the essence by Sue Lloyd, Vice-chair of the Board and Chair of the Committee.

Agenda decisions are available from:

• the IFRS Foundation website: Supporting implementation
• the Annotated IFRS^® Standards (Blue and Red Annotated Books): eifrs.ifrs.org/eifrs/Menu (Paid subscription required)

Join us at the upcoming 2019 World Standard-setters (WSS) meeting

At the annual WSS conference, those responsible for setting financial reporting standards in jurisdictions around the world:

• share experiences about adopting, implementing and applying IFRS Standards;
• discuss the Board’s agenda;
• hear updates on developments in IFRS Standards;
• provide feedback to the Board and its staff on active Board agenda projects.

In 2019, the conference will focus on providing national standard-setters with a preview of forthcoming consultations.

We encourage you to participate

Participants will discuss projects including those on Primary Financial Statements, Goodwill and Impairment and Rate-regulated Activities, as well as the 2019 Comprehensive Review of the IFRS for SMEs Standard. In addition national standard-setters will hear updates on activities of the IFRS Interpretations Committee as well as on the Board’s Disclosure Initiative, Business Combinations under Common Control and Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Equity projects.

The ‘Working together’ session will enable participants to share best practice, identify ways the Board can encourage participation in the standard-setting process and support consistent application of IFRS Standards. Panellists will share their approach to participating in the standard-setting process and supporting implementation and consistent application in their jurisdictions.

For jurisdictions that translate IFRS Standards but do not use translation software, the Translation, Adoption and Copyright team have planned a session where they will explain the basic functionality and advantages of using the software. 

The full programme for the 2019 conference is available here. The proceedings are conducted in English.

This year the conference will take place on Monday 30 September and Tuesday 1 October at the Hilton London Canary Wharf Hotel, South Quay, Marsh Wall, London, E14 9SH.

Please contact wssmeeting@ifrs.org if your jurisdiction has not received its invitation.

Summary from the recent meetings of our consultative bodies

Recordings of meeting discussions, agendas and related papers are available on the meetings page.