As part of its activities, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) organizes a forum of enforcers from 38 different European jurisdictions, all of whom carry out monitoring and review programs similar to those carried out here by the Canadian Securities Administrators. ESMA recently published some extracts from its confidential database of enforcement decisions on…

The Ontario Securities Commission and Royal Bank of Canada recently reached a settlement under which the bank agreed to make a voluntary payment of $2,000,000 to the OSC. Arising out of the same conduct, the bank agreed to pay $2,000,000 to Québec’s Autorité des Marchés Financiers, and $8,000,000 to the United States SEC (although receiving…

For several years, David Letterman ran a segment called “Great Moments in Presidential Speeches,” in which stirring clips of, say, JFK declaring “Ich bin ein Berliner” and Bill Clinton’s ringing “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America” would be followed by the latest instance of George W. Bush mangling his words…

A recent tweet (or whatever they’re called now) seemed to sweep our whole profession into the modern technology-facilitated trash. It said: “What do the IFRS people know about running a bank? You don’t need such people to make financial statements – Chat GPT is there for such things…” Well, as I wrote here, ChatGPT itself…

As we covered here, 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…

Readers may not be aware that International Accounting Day (sometimes referred to, if at all, as International Accountant’s Day) takes place on November 10. Why that day? This is from anydayguide.com: The origin of International Accounting Day is unclear, but at least we know why it is celebrated on November 10. On this day in…

This is from a recent speech by IASB Chair Andreas Barckow: Imagine a world without IFRS Accounting Standards. Companies’ reporting would likely be a patchwork around the world. Not very comparable. Perhaps not very transparent. Maybe not useful at all. Each jurisdiction would have their own requirements. Those requirements may overlap or resemble those in…

Among the many commenters on the ISSB’s recent consultation on agenda priorities was the World Nuclear Association. Here’s some of what they had to say: We believe that ISSB should adopt the ‘principle of technological neutrality’, with a focus on developing performance-based criteria that provide an accurate and comparable account of climate-related and sustainability related…

(See Peter Clark’s commentary on the following [evidently even more flawed than usual!] post) This is from the article No Comment: Language Barriers and the IASB’s Comment Letter Process, by Eduardo Flores, Brian Monsen, Emily Shafron and Christopher G. Yust: Even though over 90 percent of the countries that use IFRS do not use English as…

The IASB recently tentatively decided “to remove, as part of its next volume of Annual Improvements to IFRS Accounting Standards, the temporary nature of the exemption in IFRS 6 from the application of paragraphs 11–12 of IAS 8 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors.” This provides an opportunity to revisit, perhaps for the last time,…