International GAAP 2016 (eBook)

Preface

The IASB reported earlier this year that 116 of the 140 jurisdictions they have researched require the use of IFRS for all or most listed companies and financial institutions, and a further 12 permit the use of IFRS. IFRS is clearly maturing and is now used in more countries than ever before. While there are some very large economies – China, India, Japan and the United States – that do not require IFRS for all or most of their listed companies, considerable progress has been made in these and other countries to move towards IFRS or to converge with IFRS. Although convergence between IFRS and US GAAP is no longer a primary objective of the IASB, there is a broad–based appreciation that companies around the world are best served by keeping the differences between IFRS and US GAAP to a minimum.

There have been a number of noteworthy developments regarding the governance of IFRS in the past year. In April 2015, the IFRS Foundation and the IASB presented their new mission statement, which is 'to develop International Financial Reporting Standards that bring transparency, accountability and efficiency to financial markets around the world. Our work serves the public interest by fostering trust, growth and long–term financial stability in the global economy.' The mission statement rightly puts accounting standard setting in its broader context of supporting the public interest and development of the global economy.

In July 2015, the trustees of the IFRS Foundation issued a request for views on the structure and effectiveness of the organisation. There have already been five reviews dealing with the constitution, strategy or governance of the IFRS Foundation. This is considerably more than for comparable international organisations and illustrates the fine balance that the IFRS Foundation needs to strike between its organisation as a private sector body and its public interest mission.

The existing three–tier model of the IASB, the Trustees and the Monitoring Board aims to achieve an appropriate balance between independence and accountability. Though it is structured as a private sector body, the IASB's increasing commitments to public authorities – for example, its membership of the Financial Stability Board, its link to the Monitoring Board, and memoranda of understanding with IOSCO and ESMA – have enhanced its legitimacy as a global standard setter. Although the three–tier structure was broadly supported in previous reviews of the IFRS Foundation, the Trustees are seeking views on the functioning of the structure and suggestions in the spirit of continuous improvement. In our view, the IFRS Foundation will need to continue to demonstrate to public authorities that it is able to operate an independent, yet responsive, standard–setting process within a framework of public accountability.

Michel Prada, Chairman of the Trustees of the IFRS Foundation, noted in a recent speech to the International Forum of Accounting Standard Setters that it is essential for the IFRS Foundation 'to foster trust and public confidence in its work' and that it needs 'to be inclusive in its activities and transparent in its decision–making and it also needs to be accountable'. In line with that sentiment, the current review focuses on the relevance of IFRS, consistent application of IFRS and the governance and financing of the IFRS Foundation. While past reviews have delivered incremental enhancements in governance, questions around sovereignty, democratic principles, funding, convergence and financial stability will undoubtedly also be raised in this review. In particular, we believe that the IFRS Foundation should use the responses to this consultation to develop a coherent strategy about how it can contribute constructively to and interact with other forms of reporting, such as corporate reporting, integrated reporting, sustainability reporting and reporting of alternative performance measures.

In August 2015, the IASB published its request for views 2015 Agenda Consultation, which seeks input on the IASB's priorities from 2016 to 2020. We support the agenda consultation process as it allows the IASB to receive views from a wide range of constituents; in addition it makes the IASB's agenda setting process more transparent.

In the past year, the IASB has spent considerable time and effort on its main projects: leases, insurance contracts and the conceptual framework. The leases project is now nearing completion and is expected to be published in late 2015.

As we noted last year, the interaction between IFRS 9 and the insurance contracts project remains challenging. However, the IASB has made progress here and is expected to publish an exposure draft to accommodate insurance companies. The IASB has also made progress on the insurance contracts project itself, especially in the context of participating contracts, but more work is still to be done.

In May 2015, the IASB published its exposure draft Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting. The exposure draft is more complete than the existing Conceptual Framework, as it covers in greater detail topics such as measurement, financial performance, derecognition and the reporting entity. Notably, the exposure draft also discusses the role of stewardship and prudence in financial reporting. However, important conceptual issues such as the distinction between debt and equity, the role of profit and loss versus other comprehensive income, the unit of account, non–exchange transactions and risk–sharing arrangements, may need to be further addressed. We understand the IASB will be deciding the direction of the project during the first half of 2016.

The IFRS Foundation Trustees have identified, in the 2015 review of the organisation, the consistency of application and implementation as one of the IFRS Foundation's primary strategic goals. They correctly see this in a holistic manner as requiring: clear drafting of standards, guidance that is consistent with a principle-based approach to standard setting, a responsive approach towards requests for interpretations, close co–operation with enforcers and educational efforts.

In that context, we note that the joint IASB/FASB transition resource group for revenue recognition and the IASB's transition resource group for impairment of financial instruments have provided valuable forums for identifying interpretation questions. Furthermore, the memoranda of understanding with IOSCO and ESMA, the involvement of enforcers in the IASB's processes and attendance of IASB members and staff in IFRS enforcers' discussion sessions play an important role in promoting consistency and coherence in enforcement.

Drafting accounting standards for a worldwide audience involves a particular level of complexity because constituents interpret the wording in the context of their own experience and background. Therefore we believe that a rigorous, transparent and broad–based review of standards, before they are issued, is essential in ensuring that they are clear, understandable and enforceable in practice. Such a robust review should reduce the need for transition resource groups and technical amendments shortly after issuing new standards.

The consistent application of IFRS remains essential to its credibility. We believe that International GAAP, now in its eleventh edition, plays an important role in ensuring consistent application. Our team of authors and reviewers hails from all parts of the world, and includes not only our global technical experts but also senior client–facing staff. This gives us an in–depth knowledge of practice in many different countries and industry sectors, enabling us to go beyond mere recitation of the requirements of standards to explaining their application in many varied situations.

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We are deeply indebted to many of our colleagues within the global organisation of EY for their selfless assistance and support in the publication of this book. It has been a truly international effort, with valuable contributions from EY people around the globe.

Our thanks go particularly to those who reviewed, edited and assisted in the preparation of drafts, most notably: Justine Belton, Glenn Brady, Larissa Clark, Muriel Courel, Tai Danmola, Jackson Day, Gary Donald, Charles Feeney, Josh Forgione, Peter Gittens, Laure Guegan, Paul Hebditch, Guy Jones, Steve Kane, Dan Knightly, Akashi Kohno, Steinar Kvifte, Vincent de La Bachelerie, Twan van Limpt, Michiel van der Lof, James Luke, Robert McCracken, Joseph McGrath, Kerri Madden, Mark Mahar, John O'Grady, Eric Ohlund, Danita Ostling, Hedy Richards, Gerard van Santen, Tom Sciametta, Khilan Shah, Rachel Simons, Alison Spivey, Paul Sutcliffe, Leo van der Tas, Danny Trotman, Hans van der Veen, Arne Weber, Matthew Williams, Mark Woodward and Luci Wright.

Our thanks also go to everyone who directly or indirectly contributed to the book's creation, including the following members of the Financial Reporting Group in the UK: Denise Brand, Rob Carrington, Larissa Connor, Ann Gillan, Rabindra Jogarajan, Andrea Maylor, Bunmi Oluitan and Claire Taylor.

We also thank Jeremy Gugenheim for his assistance with the production technology throughout the period of writing.