A recent article on CCH Daily summarized a report from Moody’s Investor’s Service on “five critical drawbacks in debt reporting, given an environment with low interest rates and volatile currencies.” The underlying report doesn’t appear to be easily accessible anymore, so here’s the summary provided by CCH: “The report says the first concern is that…
If I return so soon to the writings of Al Rosen (after doing so here and here), it’s not because I’m obsessed with him (please let that be true!) but because he’s perhaps the most prominent commentator in Canada on IFRS-related matters, and it all seems to warrant some response from someone (even if I…
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued a report on Review of Fair Value Measurement on the IFRS financial statements The report “builds on a desktop review of the 2015 financial statements of a sample of 78 issuers from different industries, and on the evidence from enforcement actions taken by European enforcers relating to…
As we’ve discussed many times in the past, the IASB has issued IFRS 15, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2018. Canada’s IFRS Discussion Group recently considered the following issue relating to the application of IFRS 15: Entity A develops, manufactures and distributes innovative products. Product X…
November 2008 “On November 14, 2008, the SEC issued the much anticipated proposed IFRS “Roadmap”. The Roadmap outlines 7 milestones which if achieved could result in mandatory adoption of IFRS by U.S. Issuers in fiscal years ending on or after December 15, 2014. Also contemplated is allowing certain U.S. issuers the option to early adopt of…
A European example of complexities in applying IFRS 3 Here’s another of the issues arising from extracts of enforcement decisions issued in the past by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) (for more background see here); this is from their 19th edition: The issuer owned Business E whose net assets amounted to CU 1.3M…
ESG: good companies can make good stocks, announces a recent release by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Here’s how it expands on that: It’s not just for tree-huggers – incorporating environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) considerations into one’s framework is critical. First, these metrics have been strong indicators of future volatility, earnings risk, price…
A recent Globe and Mail article carried the tantalizing headline – “What management isn’t saying: A potential blind spot for Canadian stock investors” Here’s an extract from the article, written by David Milstead: Late last year, Artis Real Estate Investment Trust told its investors it had made an accounting mistake and announced it would correct…
Warren Buffett invests in Canada, but should you?, asks a recent New York Times column Here’s how it starts off: When Warren Buffett acts, investors notice. And after he took a roughly $300 million position last month in Home Capital Group, a troubled Canadian mortgage underwriter, some investors saw it as a vote of confidence not only in that…
The US SEC has filed charges against the Canadian entity Penn West Petroleum Ltd. (now renamed Obsidian Energy Ltd.) and three former senior accounting and finance personnel alleging violations of the antifraud, recordkeeping, internal controls, and reporting provisions of the federal securities laws arising from a multi-year accounting fraud. Penn West prepared the financial statements…
John Hughes IFRS Blog 