Accounting for intangibles: good for the public, or even for accountants?

The UK Endorsement Board recently issued Accounting for Intangibles; UK Stakeholders’ Views. The report “summarizes the views of UK stakeholders and relevant literature about the accounting for intangibles in accordance with IFRS Accounting Standards.” The Board “will use these findings as an evidence base in its future work on intangibles, including future research work, developing…

Amendments to derecognition requirements, but keeping it narrow!

The IASB mentioned a while ago that to “reduce diversity in practice and assist with the consistent application of the derecognition requirements in IFRS 9, (it) decided to clarify that for the derecognition of financial assets (except for ‘regular way’ transactions) and financial liabilities, an entity applies settlement date accounting”… The exposure draft to make all…

Activision Blizzard: fair game?

This is from a recent SEC press release: The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Activision Blizzard Inc., a video game development and publishing company, agreed to pay $35 million to settle charges that it failed to maintain disclosure controls and procedures to ensure that the company could assess whether its disclosures pertaining to…

Enhancing connectivity, or: …and you got me to look after you

The IASB recently added a project to its work plan to explore whether and how companies can provide better information about climate-related risks in their financial statements. Here’s how the news release summed it up: The initiation of the project responds to feedback received from the IASB’s recent Agenda Consultation for the IASB to enhance the reporting of climate-related…

More commentary on ESG, or: save our heart and soul!

A recent New York Times article by David Gelles explored “How Environmentally Conscious Investing Became a Target of Conservatives.” Here are some extracts: It’s been a widely accepted trend in financial circles for nearly two decades. But suddenly, Republicans have launched an assault on a philosophy that says that companies should be concerned with not…

Crypto assets held for others – maybe you see them, maybe you don’t!

Here’s the background to another issue recently discussed by CPA Canada’s IFRS Discussion Group Crypto trading platforms (“Platforms”) facilitate the buying and selling of crypto assets and may also perform functions similar to one or more of exchanges, alternative trading systems, clearing agencies, custodians and dealers. Platforms allow clients to trade crypto assets for other…

Developing and drafting disclosure requirements: play it down the middle!

Here’s a portion of a recent IASB news release: The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has today concluded its project on improving its approach to developing and drafting disclosure requirements. The improved approach is designed to help the IASB develop Accounting Standards that would enable companies to make better judgements about which information is material…

IFRS in Ethiopia: joining the family!

A section of the ifrs.org website monitors the application of IFRS across the world, based on profiles for 167 jurisdictions. That’s not the whole world though, and you might well have asked – what about Ethiopia (well, you might have)? It’s not included among the 167, and barely mentioned anywhere on the website; there’s just the following…

Recent commentaries on ESG: barreling along!

The volume of commentary on ESG-related matters seems to grow by the day… An article by Barbara Shecter in Canada’s Financial Post considered whether pension funds have a legal obligation to consider climate change when investing. Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), an international group backed by some of Canada’s largest pension funds, thinks so: (PRI)…

Making accounting cool, or: calling Miley Cyrus!

How Can We Make Accounting Cool? asked a recent Wall Street Journal article It’s written by Joe Queenan. Here are some extracts: In the past two years, as The Wall Street Journal recently reported, 300,000 accountants and auditors have left the profession, many on the dead run. The situation is so dire that American firms…