Serving the public interest…and other underexamined concepts…

This is from the page on CPA Canada’s website titled “Advocacy: In support of the public interest”: That’s a fairly focused, discipline-specific concept of the public interest. But browsing the website further, I was struck by the following phrase, included in the description of a podcast episode: “Public interest” is, clearly, among the more malleable…

DEI in retreat, or: put back that piece of pie!

It’s telling that two of Canada’s major newspapers published very similar opinion pieces  within a couple of days of each other.… This is from the piece headlined Canada must stand firm on DEI as U.S. corporations retreat, written by Wes Hall and Walied Soliman, published in the Globe and Mail: In the Toronto Star, Ruby…

IFRS 18: if you want MPMs, we’re the MVP!

Let’s return to the upcoming IFRS 18, Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements… Another key aspect of the new standard is its treatment of management-defined performance measures (MPMs), subtotals of income and expense that aren’t specifically required to be presented or disclosed under IFRS, but that an entity uses in public communications outside financial statements,…

Accountants and public trust, or: holier than the rest!

Here are some extracts from a speech recently delivered by Paul Munter, Chief Accountant of the SEC, at the AICPA and CIMA conference. Unfortunately, Munter’s specific examples of how accountants might promote the public interest don’t quite live up to that build-up: he notes that it’s critical “that preparers view financial reporting as a communication…

The Chairs got mail!

Once again, courtesy of my brave (if not foolhardy) mole at the IFRS Foundation, I present a previously-unseen selection of recent correspondence to and from the offices of IASB Chair Andreas Barckow and ISSB Chair Emmanuel Faber. This is sensitive stuff, so please destroy after reading! Dear Andreas, I’m curious about how well the two…

Proposed amendments to IAS 37: let’s look at levies again!

As we addressed here, the IASB has issued Provisions – Targeted Improvements, an exposure draft of proposed amendments to IAS 37. You’ll recall that a provision is “a liability of uncertain timing or amount” and under IAS 37 in its current form is recognized when an entity has a present obligation (legal or constructive) as…