The best of all Christmas gifts – a de facto global language!

The IFRS Foundation recently issued a news release announcing its gathering of “solid evidence that IFRS has already become the de facto global language for financial reporting.” This is based on research of how IFRS used in 122 companies, yielding the following key findings: “Nearly all of the jurisdictions have made a public commitment to…

A UK call to action on disclosure

The United Kingdom regulator issues a series of calls to action on the topic of improving disclosures The director of the UK’s Financial Reporting Council recently issued “a series of calls to action for preparers and auditors to consider improving the quality of disclosures in annual reports.” This chimes with the IASB’s current focus on…

Investment funds – the green light to IFRS

The CSA recently published amendments to its rules so that investment funds will start reporting under IFRS in 2014 The Canadian Securities Administrators recently published amendments to National Instrument 81-106 Investment Fund Continuous Disclosure, effective for financial years beginning on or after January 1, 2014. This ends a process that ended up stretching over four…

Fixed and determinable? – issues in identifying loans and receivables

A European example of how disagreements might arise in classifying financial instruments As part of its activities, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) organizes a forum of enforcers from 30 different European jurisdictions, all of whom carry out monitoring and review programs similar to those carried out here by the Canadian Securities Administrators. ESMA…

Changes to financial instruments…eventually…

The IASB has issued a package of amendments to the forthcoming financial instruments accounting standard IFRS 9, including delaying the effective date On November 19, 2013, the IASB issued a package of amendments to the much-delayed new financial instruments accounting standard, IFRS 9. Here’s the very high-level summary: “The amendments: bring into effect a substantial…