Over Half of M&A Dealmakers have Canceled Deals on ESG Due Diligence Findings, states an ESG Today report on a recent KPMG survey. Here’s some of what it had to say: This is somewhat significant, but leaves many questions for its significance to be entirely “loud and clear.” At its simplest, the due diligence process…

Is there a term that’s applied more unproductively in the world of standard-setting and regulation than “investors”? It’s easy (and perhaps inevitable) for example to cite “investor protection” as a justification for almost anything a regulator might be inclined to do. But of course, “investors” is an extremely broad category, incorporating a wide range of…

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) recently announced their endorsement of the ISSB’s Sustainability-related Financial Disclosures Standards. Here’s an extract: The IFRS Foundation is working on an adoption guide to support jurisdictions in adopting the standards, and already published a “high-level roadmap” as a precursor to that. This acknowledges that, of course, regardless of…

Why Aren’t Accountants Happy Being Accountants? asks a recent article in the UK’s PQ Magazine. True, we’ve covered aspects of this issue several times already, but then, it’s eternally intriguing. Here’s what the article has to say: This seems to support the view expressed here before, that higher compensation alone can’t solve the profession’s recruitment…

The UK’s Financial Reporting Council published a thematic review of IFRS 13 Fair Value Measurement. Here’s the executive summary of key findings: It’s not too surprising that the FRC has more to say about disclosure problems than about those in the underlying methodology; it’s usually difficult to demonstrate that a particular fair value represents an…

Who would have expected that within a few days of each other, IASB Chair Andreas Barckow and ISSB Chair Emmanual Faber would both have kicked off speeches by citing notable movies? Interesting too that between them they covered almost the entire history of the cinema. First, here’s Faber: The speech ends: “On 26 June 2025—two…

Here’s an item from the June 2023 IFRIC Update: You’ll recall that the cited paragraph of IFRS 9 excludes from the scope of the standard contracts “that were entered into and continue to be held for the purpose of the receipt or delivery of a non‑financial item in accordance with the entity’s expected purchase, sale…

The Accountant Shortage is Showing Up in Financial Statements announces a recent Wall Street Journal article. Here’s some of what the article, written by Mark Maurer, has to say: The article closes on a suggestion for alleviating the situation: An earlier Wall Street Journal article on the topic of accounting’s fading appeal made the same…

The Canadian Securities Administrators recently issued a “statement on proposed climate-related disclosure requirements.” Here it is in its entirety: That’s probably not destined to rank among the great “statements” of our time, but never mind: it’s a reminder that the issuance of those two standards by the ISSB was only the start of a multi-stage,…

The IASB recently called for stakeholder feedback to inform its review of the accounting standard for revenue from contracts with customers, IFRS 15. This is part of the regular post-implementation review process “to assess whether the effects of applying the new requirements on users of financial statements, preparers, auditors and regulators are those the IASB intended…