IASB daily staff Update—19 February 2013

Tenho recebido semanalmente informações sobre o processo de discussão e elaboração dos padrões internacionais do IASB.
Nesta  semana foi discutido, em Londres, sobre a Estrutura Conceitual, Contratos de Seguros, Reconhecimento de Receita e Leasing.
O importante neste processo é que a newsletter que recebo traz um feedback da reunião anterior sobre cada tema.
Segue a intrega.

The International Accounting Standards Board began its public meetings for this month on Monday 18 February 2013, at the IASB offices in London, UK. The meetings will conclude on Friday 22 February.

This staff update is a draft summary of decisions taken by the IASB at today’s meeting. These decisions are tentative and may be subject to change in future meetings. A final summary will be published in IASB Update shortly after the February meetings conclude.

The topics discussed at today’s IASB meeting were:

·         Conceptual Framework

·         Insurance Contracts

·         Revenue Recognition

·         Leases

Previous sessions


Fair value measurement: unit of account

The IASB discussed the unit of account for investments in subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates. The IASB had received two letters asking whether the unit of account for such investments is the investment as a whole or the individual financial assets that make up the investment. The IASB also discussed the interaction between the unit of account of those investments and their fair value measurement.

The IASB did not make a decision and asked the staff to perform additional analysis and bring the topic again to a future meeting.



IFRIC Update

The IASB received an update from the January 2013 meeting of the IFRS Interpretations Committee. Details of the meeting were published in IFRIC Update, which is available by clicking here.



Annual improvements 2010-2012

The IASB discussed four of the eleven proposed Improvements to IFRSs from the Exposure Draft published in May 2012. On the basis of the comments that the IASB received from respondents and the recommendations of the IFRS Interpretations Committee, the IASB tentatively decided to finalise the following four proposed amendments:

a.     IFRS 2 Share-based Payment—Definition of ‘vesting conditions’;

b.     IFRS 8 Operating Segments—Aggregation of operating segments;

c.     IFRS 8 Operating Segments—Reconciliation of the total of the reportable segments’ assets to the entity’s assets; and

d.     IFRS 13 Fair Value Measurement—Short-term receivables and payables.

All IASB members agreed subject to some minor wording amendments.



Hedge accounting

Novation of derivatives

At the January 2013 IASB meeting, the IASB agreed to grant relief from the requirement to discontinue hedge accounting in the circumstance in which a derivative is required to be novated to a central counterparty (CCP) when the novation is required by laws or regulations. To provide this relief, the IASB had agreed to propose narrow-scope amendments to IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement and IFRS 9 Financial Instruments.

At this meeting, the staff presented an oral update on developments since the last IASB meeting. The staff informed the IASB that some stakeholders had advised that the novation to a CCP would in many cases be accompanied by some other changes to the derivative beyond merely the change of counterparty. For example, changes to collateral requirements of the novated derivative may be required.

Consequently the staff recommended that the intended relief from the discontinuation of hedge accounting, should be permitted if such changes accompany the novation. The staff also noted that changes to the collateral requirements for the novated derivative would affect the fair value of that derivative, and that this change in fair value would need to be reflected in measurement of the derivative and in the assessment of the effectiveness of the hedge relationship.

The IASB agreed with the staff’s observations and to the change needed to the proposed amendment.

The staff also informed the IASB that the Trustees’ Due Process Oversight Committee (DPOC) had approved the 30-day comment period of the proposed amendment.

Next steps

The staff will prepare an Exposure Draft based on these decisions and will begin the balloting process for publication.



Leases

The IASB met on 18 February 2013 to discuss how to account for right-of-use assets that meet the definition of investment property in accordance with IAS 40 Investment Property as a consequence of the changes being proposed to lease accounting.

The IASB tentatively decided to require an entity to account for right-of-use assets in accordance with IAS 40 if the leased property meets the definition of an investment property.

All IASB members agreed.



Insurance Contracts

The IASB held an education session on 18 February 2013 in preparation for its decision on whether to proceed to ballot the revised Exposure Draft Insurance Contracts.The IASB was presented with an overview of the proposed model for accounting for insurance contracts. In addition, the IASB considered the ways in which it had addressed the comments of respondents on the 2010 Exposure Draft Insurance Contracts.

No decisions were made.



Today's sessions


Conceptual Framework

In this meeting the IASB discussed the definition of an asset, the definition of a liability and the recognition criteria to be included in its Discussion Paper on the Conceptual Framework. A full update on all aspects of the Conceptual Framework discussions will be provided at the end of the week.



Insurance Contracts

The IASB met on 19 February 2013 to complete its planned technical discussions of the proposed model for accounting for insurance contracts. The IASB discussed the transition requirements for contracts acquired through a business combination and reviewed the due process necessary before beginning the balloting process. The IASB staff requested permission to begin the balloting process for the revised Exposure Draft.

Transition requirements for contracts acquired through a business combination

The IASB tentatively decided that:

1.     in applying the transition requirements for insurance contracts, an insurer should account for the in-force contracts that were previously acquired through a business combination using:

a.     the date of the business combination as the date of inception of those contracts; and

b.     the fair value of those contracts at the date of the business combination as the premium received.

2.     when an insurer first applies the forthcoming Insurance Contracts Standard to insurance contracts that were previously acquired through a business combination, any gains or losses should adjust retained earnings (rather than goodwill).

All IASB members agreed.

Permission to ballot a revised Exposure Draft for insurance contracts

In September 2012, the IASB agreed to publish a revised Exposure Draft of the proposals on accounting for insurance contracts but to seek feedback only on the following issues:

1.     treatment of participating contracts;

2.     presentation of premiums and claims in the statement of comprehensive income;

3.     treatment of the unearned profit in an insurance contract;

4.     presenting, in other comprehensive income, the effect of changes in the discount rate used to measure the insurance contract liability; and

5.     the approach to transition.

At its meeting in September 2012, the IASB noted that, while the revised Exposure Draft would include the full text of the proposed Standard, it would also be necessary to clearly inform stakeholders that the IASB does not intend to revisit aspects of the proposed Standard other than the areas it has targeted for re-exposure.

At this meeting, the IASB concluded that it had met the due process requirements to begin the balloting process. The IASB also noted that it has undertaken extensive outreach and comprehensively addressed the comments from respondents to the 2010 Exposure Draft Insurance Contracts. The IASB intends to undertake fieldwork with preparers and users of financial statements during the comment period to assess the costs and benefits of the targeted proposals. Accordingly, the IASB gave permission to begin the process of balloting the revised Exposure Draft.

All IASB members agreed. One member noted his intention to dissent from the publication of the revised Exposure Draft.

The IASB tentatively decided that the revised Exposure Draft should be open for comments for 120 days.

All IASB members agreed.

Next steps

The IASB will proceed with the balloting process and plans to publish the revised Exposure Draft for comment in Q2 2013.




Reports for the following sessions were not available for inclusion in today's daily Update and will be included in tomorrow's daily Update, if available:

·         Revenue Recognition

·         Leases