Post-implementation review of IFRS 9, or: we did it right!

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) recently concluded its Post-implementation Review of the impairment requirements in IFRS 9 Financial Instruments—Impairment and published a Project Summary and Feedback Statement. Here’s the summary of conclusions: They note along the way: “Many preparers said the principles allow them to align the approaches to assessing significant increases in credit risk…

New proposals on goodwill, or: pierce that shield!

As we discussed here, in March 2024 the IASB published for comment the Exposure Draft Business Combinations—Disclosures, Goodwill and Impairment. In the exposure draft, the IASB (among other things) addressed some reasons for concerns that impairment losses on goodwill are sometimes being recognized too late, including: The exposure draft proposes amending IAS 36 to clarify that…

The climate-related prisoner’s dilemma, or: you be good first!

The New York Times recently published a piece titled Dilemma on Wall Street: Short-Term Gain or Climate Benefit? It’s written by Lydia DePillis. Here are some extracts: The article notes that “it’s difficult to steer a portfolio to climate-friendly assets while other funds take on polluting companies and reap short-term profits for impatient clients…. without…

New disclosure proposals for business combinations – not enough incremental value?

As we discussed here, in March 2024 the IASB published for comment the Exposure Draft Business Combinations—Disclosures, Goodwill and Impairment. As we previously covered, the exposure draft rejected some of the more ambitious ideas mooted in the past, such as reintroducing amortization of goodwill, focusing instead on fine-tuning the methodology for impairment testing and introducing additional…

More on classification of liabilities, or: no state of grace

You’ll recall that following amendments to IAS 1 in 2022, an entity classifies a liability as current when, among other things, it does not have the right at the end of the reporting period to defer settlement of the liability for at least twelve months after the reporting period. The standard specifies that if the right to defer…

Expectations for the modern company, or: we could so easily buckle!

Canada’s Globe and Mail recently published, on the same day, a couple of interestingly contrasting opinion pieces. The first, titled Small companies risk buckling under the burdens of mandatory sustainability reporting, was by Andrew McLaughlin. Here are some extracts: The second article, titled How many LGBTQ+ corporate directors does Canada have? We investigated, was by…

Hall of Fame!: or, Animal House!

The Canadian Accounting Hall of Fame announces its 2024 inductees! There are eight of them, six of whom are still with us. This is perhaps the most distinctive of the eight summarized bios: The other seven inductees are I’m sure no less worthy, although in a more conventional vein (I worked a bit with one…

Let’s stay connected, or: we can no longer go it alone!

With his “Let’s Stay Connected” address to the European Accounting Association Annual Congress, Andreas Barckow delivers one of the all-time most interesting speeches by an IASB Chair. Rather like identifying the world’s largest gnat, you say? Not at all! I’ll devote the entire space today to some extracts: The closing thought of Barckow’s thoughtful and…

More on the quality of audits, or: your mission is confused!

Let’s take another look at the report published by the University of Sheffield’s Audit Reform Lab, titled Reward for failure: The paradox of audit partners’ record payouts amidst poor audit quality. These are some of its recommendations: The report doesn’t specifically suggest how the client-pays model should be reformed or replaced (some have suggested, for…