The IFRS Interpretations Committee (Committee) discussed the following matter and tentatively decided not to add a standard-setting project to the work plan. The Committee will reconsider this tentative decision, including the reasons for not adding a standard-setting project, at a future meeting. The Committee invites comments on the tentative agenda decision. All comments will be on the public record and posted on our website unless a respondent requests confidentiality and we grant that request. We do not normally grant such requests unless they are supported by good reason, for example, commercial confidence.
Tentative Agenda Decision
The Committee received a request about whether an entity includes a demand deposit as a component of cash and cash equivalents in its statements of cash flows and financial position when the demand deposit is subject to contractual restrictions on use agreed with a third party. In the fact pattern described in the request, the entity:
- holds a demand deposit whose terms and conditions do not prevent the entity from accessing the amounts held in it (that is, were the entity to request any amount from the deposit, it would receive that amount on demand).
- has a contractual obligation with a third party to keep a specified amount of cash in that separate demand deposit and to use the cash only for specified purposes. If the entity were to use the amounts held in the demand deposit for purposes other than those agreed with the third party, the entity would be in breach of its contractual obligation.
Cash and cash equivalents in the statement of cash flows
Paragraph 6 of IAS 7 defines ‘cash’ by stating that it ‘comprises cash on hand and demand deposits.’ IAS 7 includes no other requirements on whether an item qualifies as cash beyond the definition itself.
IAS 7 and IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements indicate that amounts included in cash and cash equivalents may be subject to restrictions. Namely:
- paragraph 48 of IAS 7 requires an entity to disclose information about ‘significant cash and cash equivalent balances held by the entity that are not available for use by the group’; and
- paragraph 66(d) of IAS 1 requires an entity to classify as current an asset that is ‘cash or a cash equivalent (as defined in IAS 7) unless the asset is restricted from being exchanged or used to settle a liability for at least twelve months after the reporting period’.
The Committee concluded that restrictions on use of a demand deposit arising from a contract with a third party do not result in the deposit no longer being cash, unless those restrictions change the nature of the deposit in a way that it would no longer meet the definition of cash in IAS 7.
In the fact pattern described in the request, the contractual restrictions on use of the amounts held in the demand deposit do not change the nature of the deposit—the entity can access those amounts on demand. The Committee therefore concluded that the entity includes the demand deposit as a component of ‘cash and cash equivalents’ in its statement of cash flows.
Presentation in the statement of financial position
Paragraph 54(i) of IAS 1 requires an entity to include a line item in its statement of financial position that presents the amount of ‘cash and cash equivalents’. Paragraph 55 of IAS 1 states ‘an entity shall present additional line items (including by disaggregating the line items listed in paragraph 54) … in the statement of financial position when such presentation is relevant to an understanding of the entity’s financial position’.
The Committee therefore concluded that, in the fact pattern described in the request, the entity presents the demand deposit as cash and cash equivalents in its statement of financial position. When relevant to an understanding of its financial position, the entity would disaggregate the cash and cash equivalents line item and present the demand deposit subject to contractual restrictions on use separately in an additional line item.
An entity that presents assets as current or non-current would, applying paragraph 66(d) of IAS 1, classify the demand deposit as current unless the deposit is ‘restricted from being exchanged or used to settle a liability for at least twelve months after the reporting period’.
Disclosures
Paragraph 45 of IAS 7 states that ‘an entity shall disclose the components of cash and cash equivalents…’, and paragraph 48 of IAS 7 requires an entity to disclose, together with commentary by management, ‘the amount of significant cash and cash equivalent balances held by the entity that are not available for use by the group’. Applying those requirements, the entity discloses the demand deposit subject to contractual restrictions on use as a component of cash and cash equivalents and the amount of significant cash and cash equivalent balances unavailable for use by the group, as well as information about that amount. The entity also considers whether to disclose additional information:
- in the context of the requirements in IFRS 7 Financial Instruments: Disclosures about liquidity risk arising from financial instruments and how an entity manages that risk; and
- if the information it provides applying the disclosure requirements in IAS 7 and IFRS 7 is insufficient to enable users of financial statements to understand the impact of the restrictions on the entity’s financial position (paragraph 31 of IAS 1).
The Committee concluded that the principles and requirements in IFRS Standards provide an adequate basis for an entity to determine whether to include demand deposits subject to contractual restrictions on use agreed with a third party as a component of cash and cash equivalents in its statements of cash flows and financial position. Consequently, the Committee [decided] not to add a standard-setting project to the work plan.
The deadline for commenting on the tentative agenda decision was 25 November 2021. The Committee will consider all comments received in writing by that date; agenda papers analysing comments received will include analysis only of comments received by that date.
