Accounting

IFRS Foundation Annual Report Sets Out IASB Future Major Initiatives

By David R. JonesAn advisory panel to the International Accounting Standards Board in the coming years will track the board's efforts to gauge the impacts of proposed changes to international financial reporting standards.The IFRS Foundation, IASB's parent group, said in its annual report published May 5 that the board's Due Process Oversight Committee would monitor the implementation of recommendations from the IASB's Effects Analysis Consultative Group.The group's December 2014 report called on IASB to “assess and explain how general purpose financial reports are likely to change because of the new requirements, and why those changes will improve the quality of general purpose financial reports”.Upcoming Standards Evaluating the board's use of effects analysis is among a series of IASB goals for 2015-2017 that the IFRS Foundation set out in its 2014 annual report.  Topping IASB's standard-setting agenda is its work on lease accounting and insurance contracts, along with finishing its other remaining projects.Delay in Insurance Contracts Standard Though the board failed to reach convergence with the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board on lease accounting, IASB is aiming to issue its own standard by the end of 2015.In addition, the board recently indicated that it would solicit additional feedback on its insurance contracts proposal, pushing the likely completion date for the standard into 2016.Conceptual Framework IASB made substantial progress in 2014 on its conceptual framework, which lays out the basic principles for preparing and presenting financial reports, board Chairman Hans Hoogervorst said in the IFRS Foundation's annual report.The framework “also serves as a major point of reference in the development of new IFRS,” he noted.IASB currently is reviewing some 200 comments it received on its conceptual framework discussion paper, and the board is slated to issue an exposure draft on the framework “shortly,” Hoogervorst said.Disclosure Initiative He reported that the board last year also made major headway on its disclosure initiative, a group of projects designed to make financial reporting more effective.IASB aims to release a discussion paper on the initiative this year.Hoogervorst expressed confidence that the initiative will spur “real behavioural change among preparers and will go a considerable way to ‘breaking the boilerplate’ of financial...

Thank you for visiting FEI.

Join FEI to see the rest of this exclusive content.
  • Stay on top of latest news and research.
  • Connect with financial experts and executives like you.
  • Get access to hundreds of professional resources.

Free Content