Between all the work done by regulators and standard-setters, striking examples of potentially misleading “non-GAAP measures” aren’t as easy to come by as they used to be. The AI company Anthropic recently provided a good one though, albeit falling into somewhat of a “hearsay” category as the company is privately held and doesn’t yet report…

Canadian securities regulators decline to oversee sports, entertainment contracts for prediction markets, announced a recent Globe and Mail headline Here’s some of what the article had to say: Meanwhile in the US, The New York Times reported a couple of days later: The Times reported elsewhere: “In total, 20 states are locked in litigation over…

Let’s return to the IFRS 18 concept of management-defined performance measures. You’ll recall that the new standard defines such a measure as ‘a subtotal of income and expenses that an entity uses in public communications outside financial statements; to communicate to users of financial statements management’s view of an aspect of the financial performance of…

As we’ve covered before, the KPMG Australia has put whistleblowers in the spotlight. And it appears it may not be over yet: One wonders whether there should be a secondary term for those who come forward once the safety and effectiveness of doing so has been clearly established – whistle riders for instance. But that…

And now for something completely different – Didrik Thrane-Nielsen, Project Director at European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, recently set out to “trigger some thinking on the basic building blocks in IFRS” by providing new proposed definitions for assets and liabilities, and issuing a challenge: “Please come up with one or more practical example(s) where the…

A couple of decades ago I was doing some work on the topic of executive compensation disclosure, and would have lost count of the number of times I heard the line “sunshine is the best disinfectant” used to justify the effort. As it turns out, it was a slight misquote all along: the actual line,…

Canada’s IFRS Accounting Standards Discussion Group recently discussed the following only-in-Trump-World scenario: The IDG considered whether it’s appropriate to recognize an asset as at a March 31, 2026 reporting date for potential tariff recoveries. Such recognition might be appropriate if one takes the view that the Supreme Court decision, together with subsequent developments up until…

A new IASB Chair is announced! His name is Sam Woods, and here’s the bio: Marek Muc pointed out: “Couldn’t help noticing that the new IASB chair doesn’t seem to have any substantial accounting background. But perhaps this is a role that’s more about politics than technical accounting…” Well, a good point. But a brief…

Let’s check in again on the fast-moving KPMG Australia scandal, as handily summed up here: Some recent developments, as reported by the Australia Financial Review: A “KPMG Australia scandal timeline” on one website tracks new developments almost daily over recent months. Of course, the events continue to trigger a flood of commentary, for instance: It’s…

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) recently published a consultation paper “seeking stakeholder input on potential ways to modernize securities legislation for public companies,” open for a 120-day comment period. Here’s how it sets out one item relevant to the subject matter of this blog. A reminder that in Canada, “venture issuers” generally refers to smaller public…