A while ago, at its June 2010 meeting, CPA Canada’s IFRS Discussion group addressed the issue of reporting cash flow per share, in the following terms: Since 2003, (old) Canadian standards have specifically prohibited financial statement presentation of cash flow per share information. IFRSs are silent on this issue; neither IAS 7 Statement of Cash…
A recent Bloomberg View article, published in Canada in the National Post, muses on the success of fundamental analysis, and the challenge this constitutes to the efficient market hypothesis The author, Noah Smith, sets out the background like this: “Fundamental analysis succeeds if two things are true. First, the market has to have overlooked important…
Australia and Korea recently issued a report on differences in the interpretation of common accounting terms in Korea and Australia. Here’s how the news release summed it up: “In a joint project, the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) and the Korean Accounting Standards Board (KASB) looked at whether words such as ‘likely’, ‘probable’ and ‘certain’…
KPMG has recently issued Room for Improvement, the second edition of its survey of business reporting. The study presents ‘the main findings from a global analysis of the content of 270 larger listed companies’ reports, in an effort to highlight weaknesses and identify good practices in the presentation of corporate information.” These are its main…
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales have issued the latest in a series of “Audit Insights” documents, this one focused on “Improving annual reports of listed companies.” Some of the content covers matters addressed on this blog several times in the past, for example in commenting on materiality and disclosure overload, and…
“Revenue Standard causes concern about compensation arrangements” says the headline of a recent article in the Journal of Accountancy. Here’s an extract: “Compensation arrangements are emerging as a big concern for companies as they implement the new revenue recognition standard. Many companies have compensation plans for sales personnel, executives, or others that are tied to…
A recent article in The New York Times argued that disclosure of conflict of interest “often has the opposite of its intended effect, not only increasing bias in advisers but also making advisees more likely to follow biased advice. The article isn’t any way about disclosure in the context of IFRS, and any extrapolation of…
The topic of climate change disclosures recently received some attention in Canada, by virtue of a speech by Bank of England governor Mark Carney. As reported in the Globe and Mail: “In a discussion with Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna before a large audience at a Toronto Region Board of Trade event, Mr. Carney pointed…
The Canadian Securities Administrators have issued Staff Notice 51-346 Continuous Disclosure Review Program Activities for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016. The report highlights a motley selection of apparently recurring deficiencies in IFRS financial statements: Market Risk Sensitivity Analysis “Some issuers present sensitivity analysis that is not reflective of the reasonably possible changes in…
In a recent post, I wrote a little bit about the integrated reporting (<IR>, as it styles itself) initiative, very much from the perspective of someone dipping an initial toe into the water. I mentioned that the initiative’s website contains samples of reports prepared with reference to the <IR> framework, and it’s interesting from many…
John Hughes IFRS Blog 