HFAA : 8o Ετήσιο Συνέδριο Συνδέσμου Επιστημόνων Χρηματοοικονομικής και Λογιστικής

www.hfaa.gr

Το Τμήμα Λογιστικής και Χρηματοοικονομικής του Πανεπιστημίου Μακεδονίας διοργανώνει το 8ο Ετήσιο Συνέδριο του Συνδέσμου Επιστημόνων Χρηματοοικονομικής και Λογιστικής Ελλάδος (HFAA).

Στο Συνέδριο, που θα πραγματοποιηθεί στη Θεσσαλονίκη στις 18 & 19 Δεκεμβρίου 2009, συμμετέχουν αναγνωρισμένα στελέχη της ακαδημαϊκής και επιστημονικής κοινότητας.

Το κόστος συμμετοχής ανέρχεται στα 100Ευρώ ενώ στους μεταπτυχιακούς φοιτητές και υποψήφιους διδάκτορες παρέχεται έκπτωση 50%

Κατεβάστε το αναλυτικό πρόγραμμα:
http://www.hfaa.gr/Docs/HFAA%202009/Program%20HFAA%202009.doc

Κατεβάστε τη φόρμα συμμετοχής:
http://www.hfaa.gr/Docs/HFAA%202009/Registration%20Form2.doc

Γνωστοποιήσεις, Διεθνή Λογιστικά Πρότυπα και Δίκαιη Αξία : του Δρ. Δημήτριου Ντζανάτου

dntzanatos.gr

Οι ελεγκτές και οι λογιστές που έχουν ασχοληθεί, είναι τώρα πιο σοφοί και μπορούν να τα δουν με άλλα μάτια. Σε μεγάλο βαθμό έφυγε το δέος που φέρνει η άγνοια, κατανοήθηκε ποια από τα προβλήματα που σχετίζονται με τα ΔΛΠ είναι πραγματικά και ποια είναι εικονικά.

Δυστυχώς, θα απαιτηθεί αρκετός χρόνος, να αντιμετωπιστεί συνολικά και ικανοποιητικά το πρόβλημα. Δεν είναι πια κυρίως θέμα γνώσης. Είναι θέμα οργάνωσης των ελληνικών εταιριών και «σταθεροποίησης» του περιεχομένου των προτύπων.

«Πρότυπο» σημαίνει κατά τεκμήριο κάτι σταθερό, που οι μεταβολές του είναι οριακές. Εδώ έχουμε πρότυπα τα οποία μεταβάλλονται με φρενήρεις ρυθμούς. Οι παλιότερες αλλαγές της ελληνικής φορολογικής νομοθεσίας, δεν είναι τίποτε μπροστά σε αυτό που γίνεται με τα ΔΛΠ. Στο τέλος του Δεκέμβρη υπήρχαν σε εξέλιξη 12 projects αλλαγών εγκεκριμένα από το συμβούλιο των προτύπων (IASB), που εκκρεμούσαν για έγκριση από την ΕΕ και 36 projects αλλαγών από το ίδιο το συμβούλιο. Κάποια από τα projects αφορούν αλλαγές ολόκληρων προτύπων, κάποια άλλα αφορούν τροποποιήσεις που επιδρούν σε πλήθος άλλων προτύπων. Για το μέσο χρήστη, πρόκειται για μία χαώδη κατάσταση.

Η διαρκής μεταβλητότητα έχει πολλές και συγκεκριμένες αιτίες, στις οποίες δεν θα αναφερθούμε ειδικά. Υποδηλώνει μεταξύ άλλων και αδυναμίες στο περιεχόμενο. Οι έμπειροι λογιστές και ελεγκτές, ξέρουν τώρα ότι τα ΔΛΠ δεν είναι πανάκεια, ότι έχουν πολλά κενά, ασαφείς προσεγγίσεις, περιττές υποχρεώσεις, αδυναμίες στον τρόπο παρουσίασής τους. Ιδιαίτερα μεγάλα προβλήματα υπάρχουν στη μετάφραση επιστημονικών όρων στα ελληνικά. Παρόλα αυτά είναι ένα μεγάλο επίτευγμα. Διαμορφώνεται μία κοινή γλώσσα επικοινωνίας των λογιστών και των χρηστών των οικονομικών καταστάσεων σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο. Οι μακροχρόνιες ωφέλειες θα είναι ανυπολόγιστες. Για τις επόμενες γενιές επαγγελματιών, τα πράγματα θα είναι πιο εύκολα. Η πρώτη γενιά όμως, είναι προφανές ότι θα υποφέρει.

Ένα ζήτημα που σχετίζεται με τα ΔΛΠ αφορά το χρόνο που ένα πρότυπο ή τροποποίηση, αποκτούν νομική ισχύ. Ανήκουμε σε κράτος δικαίου που εντάσσεται σε μία υπερεθνική οντότητα. Ισχύουν για μας οι κανονισμοί που θεσμοθετούνται για τα πρότυπα από την ΕΕ. Το IASB δεν έχει νομοθετική ισχύ, ούτε στη χώρα μας ούτε αλλού. Ένα πρότυπο που εγκρίνεται από το IASB είναι καλό να το ξέρουμε, αλλά είμαστε υποχρεωμένοι να εφαρμόσουμε μόνο τα πρότυπα για τα οποία έχουν εκδοθεί κανονισμοί. Το Νοέμβρη του 2008, η ΕΕ έκανε κωδικοποίηση των μέχρι τότε προτύπων, τα οποία είχαν θεσμοθετηθεί με κανονισμούς (Κανονισμός 1126/3.11.2008). Από τότε έχουν εγκριθεί και άλλοι κανονισμοί και θα συνεχίσουν να εκδίδονται. Οι χρήστες δεν έχουν υποστήριξη, ώστε εύκολα να γνωρίζουν τι ισχύει κάθε φορά. Είναι ζήτημα που μπορεί να λυθεί και θα λυθεί, αλλά ακόμη δημιουργεί προβλήματα.

Το κύριο πρόβλημα όμως που σχετίζεται με τα ΔΛΠ, είναι η πληρότητα των Notes.

Έχουν γίνει κάποιες έρευνες και θα γίνουν και άλλες, αλλά η πραγματικότητα για τους λογιστές και τους ελεγκτές είναι γνωστή. Οι απαιτήσεις για γνωστοποιήσεις που επιβάλλουν τα πρότυπα, ικανοποιούνται μόνο κατά ένα ποσοστό. Κάποιες που θα έπρεπε να εμφανίζονται δεν εμφανίζονται καθόλου, ενώ για κάποιες άλλες, οι πληροφορίες που παρέχονται είναι ατελείς, σε σχέση με τις ρυθμίσεις των προτύπων.

Οι αιτίες είναι πολλές:

• Ο όγκος της πληροφόρησης που επιβάλλουν τα ΔΛΠ είναι τεράστιος. Ένα προσάρτημα των οικονομικών καταστάσεων με τα ελληνικά πρότυπα, μπορεί να έχει όγκο 5 με 10 σελίδες. Οι πλήρεις οικονομικές καταστάσεις με τα ΔΛΠ, μπορεί να έχουν όγκο εκατοντάδων σελίδων.
  
  
• Η άντληση αυτών των πληροφοριών, με βάση τα πληροφοριακά συστήματα των εταιριών, δεν είναι πάντα εύκολη.
  
  
• Πολλές ρυθμίσεις για γνωστοποιήσεις είναι ασαφείς και επιδέχονται διαφορετικές ερμηνείες.
  
  
• Οι κατευθύνσεις παρουσίασης αυτών των πληροφοριών είναι πολύ γενικές.
  
  
• Διαρκής μεταβολή του περιεχομένου των προτύπων και κατ’ επέκταση των γνωστοποιήσεων.
  
  Έτσι πολλά πράγματα αφήνονται στην «πρωτοβουλία» των επιχειρήσεων. Το τελικό θύμα αυτής της κατάστασης είναι ο χρήστης, αλλά και ο ελεγκτής, που δεν ξέρει κάθε φορά τι ψάχνει να βρει και που θα το βρει.
  

Τα θεσμικά όργανα, έχουν επιβάλλει στις επιχειρήσεις να δημοσιεύουν στον τύπο συγκεκριμένες πληροφορίες. Ανεξάρτητα από το γεγονός ότι είναι αποσπασματικές και καλύπτουν ένα μικρό μέρος των συνολικών γνωστοποιήσεων, έχουν ένα πολύ σημαντικό θετικό χαρακτηριστικό. Είναι ομοιόμορφες. Ο αναγνώστης ξέρει που θα κοιτάξει να βρει μία πληροφορία και την ίδια πληροφορία μπορεί να τη βρει για όλες τις εταιρίες που θα εξετάσει. Αντίθετα, αν πάρει τις συνολικές οικονομικές καταστάσεις διάφορων εταιριών, δεν θα ξέρει που να ψάξει για πολλές πληροφορίες.

Δεν θα ξέρει αν η εταιρία έπρεπε να δώσει μία πληροφορία και δεν την έδωσε. Μία εταιρία θα έχει την πληροφορία με τον ένα τρόπο και μία άλλη με διαφορετικό, μη συγκρίσιμο τρόπο.

Έτσι, ενώ επιβλήθηκε ένα σύστημα πολύ αναλυτικότερης πληροφόρησης, αν αυτή η πληροφόρηση δεν παρέχεται με οργανωμένο, κατανοητό και συγκρίσιμο τρόπο, αφορά μόνο τους ειδικούς και όχι τον απλό χρήστη, που τελικά μπορεί να βρεθεί σε σύγχυση.

Κανείς δεν απαγορεύει στις εποπτικές αρχές, να επιβάλλουν ένα σταθερό μοντέλο γνωστοποιήσεων, που δεν θα έρχεται σε αντίθεση με τις διατάξεις των προτύπων.
Οι διατάξεις για τις γνωστοποιήσεις είναι δεδομένες. Αν μία διάταξη δεν έχει εφαρμογή για μία εταιρία, αυτό θα πρέπει να γνωστοποιείται, αν όχι στο κοινό, τουλάχιστον στις εποπτικές αρχές και τους ελεγκτές της. Γιατί είναι άλλης φύσης πρόβλημα μία ατελής πληροφορία και άλλο η απόλυτη παράλειψη πληροφόρησης.

Το ζήτημα της σωστής εφαρμογής των διατάξεων των προτύπων για τις γνωστοποιήσεις, αποκτά μία ιδιαίτερη σημασία στις δύσκολες συνθήκες που βιώνει η οικονομία μας.

Γιατί όταν όλα πάνε καλά, πολλά πράγματα δεν τα ψάχνουμε.
Αν «σκάσει» όμως μία εταιρία και οι καταστάσεις της γίνουν αντικείμενο ενδελεχούς έρευνας, θα προκύψουν οι ατέλειες στην πληροφόρηση, για γνωστοποιήσεις που δεν έγιναν καθόλου ή για γνωστοποιήσεις που η πληροφόρηση δεν ήταν πλήρης.

Η διοίκηση, οι ελεγκτές, οι εποπτικές αρχές θα αντιμετωπίσουν προβλήματα, που θα μπορούσαν να αποφύγουν. Γιατί όλη η λογική των προτύπων, βασίζεται στην εκτενή και ειλικρινή πληροφόρηση των χρηστών. Αν αυτή έχει γίνει, μειώνονται οι συνέπειες μίας αρνητικής εξέλιξης για την εταιρία.

Αν όμως δεν έχει γίνει, η αρνητική εξέλιξη μπορεί να συνδεθεί με προσπάθεια παραπλάνησης του χρήστη, ανεξάρτητα αν κάτι τέτοιο δεν ήταν στην πρόθεση κανενός από τους εμπλεκόμενους.

Δρ. Δημήτριος Ντζανάτος, Ορκωτός Ελεγκτής Λογιστής
Πρόεδρος Δ.Σ. Grant Thornton
dntzanatos.gr

ΣΟΕΛ : 8ο Συνέδριο Σώματος Ορκωτών Ελεγκτών Λογιστών : 8th SOEL Conference

www.soel.gr

Το 8ο Συνέδριο του Σώματος Ορκωτών Ελεγκτών Λογιστών με θέμα «Οι εξελίξεις στον ελεγκτικολογιστικό θεσμό» θα πραγματοποιηθεί το Σάββατο 5 Δεκεμβρίου 2009 στο ATHENS GOLF CLUB στην Γλυφάδα. (09.30-14.00)

Το συνέδριο θα καλύψει ενδιαφέροντα θέματα που θα αφορούν στον Ποιοτικό Έλεγχο, το Ξέπλυμα Χρήματος, την Εκπαίδευση και την Επιμόρφωση, καθώς και στη συνεργασία του Σ.Ο.Ε.Λ. με το ACCA.

Θα ακολουθήσουν οι Απονομές Αδειών Ασκήσεως Επαγγέλματος στους νέους Ορκωτούς Ελεγκτές Λογιστές, καθώς και των Μεταπτυχιακών Τίτλων Επαγγελματικής Κατάρτισης Ελεγκτών Λογιστών (ΜΕΤΚΕΛ) του Ι.Ε.Σ.Ο.Ε.Λ. και η εκδήλωση θα κλείσει με γεύμα.

Το λεπτομερές πρόγραμμα θα δημοσιευθεί σύντομα στην ιστοσελίδα του ΣΟΕΛ.

Ernst & Young : Περισσότερες εταιρίες στρέφονται στον εσωτερικό έλεγχο

cfoagenda.gr

Ο διευρυμένος ρόλος του εσωτερικού ελέγχου αυξάνει την ανάγκη για προσωπικό με εξειδικευμένες ικανότητες.

Καθώς όλο και περισσότερες εταιρείες στρέφονται στον εσωτερικό έλεγχο για τη βελτίωση της επιχειρηματικής τους δραστηριότητας, νέες ευκαιρίες παρουσιάζονται για τους εσωτερικούς Ελεγκτές. Παράλληλα αυξάνονται οι απαιτούμενες δεξιότητές τους, καθώς οι διοικήσεις απευθύνονται σ' αυτούς ολοένα και περισσότερο, προκειμένου να τους παρέχουν συστάσεις για τη βελτίωση των επιχειρήσεών τους και ευρύτερη κάλυψη όσον αφορά στους στρατηγικούς και λειτουργικούς κινδύνους. Αυτά είναι τα πορίσματα της έρευνας Global Internal Audit Survey της Ernst & Young για το 2008.

«Οι δύσκολες οικονομικές συνθήκες που επικρατούν και οι αυξημένες προσδοκίες των επενδυτών ασκούν πιέσεις στην εκτελεστική διοίκηση και τις επιτροπές ελέγχου προκειμένου να βελτιώσουν το Σύστημα Εσωτερικού Ελέγχου και να οδηγήσουν σε αποδόσεις μεγαλύτερης αξίας», δηλώνει ο Γιώργος Παπαδημητρίου, υπεύθυνος των συμβουλευτικών υπηρεσιών της Ernst & Young στην Ελλάδα.

«Κατά συνέπεια, είναι σαφές ότι ο ρόλος του εσωτερικού ελέγχου εξελίσσεται και γίνεται περισσότερο συμβουλευτικός». Η συμμόρφωση με τους κανονισμούς εξακολουθεί να είναι σημαντική, ωστόσο η διοίκηση πλέον αναμένει συστάσεις για τη βελτίωση της απόδοσης και διορατικές αναλύσεις σχετικά με τους αναδυόμενους κινδύνους, επιπρόσθετα από την κάλυψη ενός πολύ ευρύτερου φάσματος κινδύνων».

Η έρευνα στην οποία συμμετείχαν 348 ανώτερα στελέχη εσωτερικού ελέγχου από 35 χώρες υποδεικνύει την ανάγκη για περαιτέρω εστίαση στους λειτουργικούς κινδύνους τα επόμενα δύο χρόνια, ενώ 75% των ερωτηθέντων προτάσσουν την εστίαση σε θέματα τεχνολογίας πληροφορικής (IT), 53% στα σημαντικά προγράμματα κεφαλαίων, 45% στη βελτίωση της απόδοσης, 44% στην ασφάλεια των πληροφοριών και 39% στην απάτη.

Ωστόσο, μόνο το 69% των ερωτηθέντων καλύπτουν σε ποσοστό 90% ή υψηλότερο τον αριθμό εργαζομένων βάσει του προϋπολογισμού της εταιρείας, ενώ 64% υποδεικνύουν ότι η πρόσληψη και η διατήρηση εξειδικευμένου προσωπικού σε αυτούς τους τομείς αποτελεί πρόκληση.

Διαβάστε περισσότερα στο:
http://cfoagenda.gr/default.asp?pid=9&la=1&cID=1&arId=101

IAS 39 : IASB : Reforms on Financial Instruments

www.iasb.org

Sir David Tweedie, Chairman of the IASB, and Sir Bryan Nicholson, Trustee of the IASC Foundation, provided an update to European Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) on reforms to IAS 39 Financial Instruments.

Opening remarks by Sir Bryan Nicholson
Trustee of the IASC Foundation

Sir David and I welcome the opportunity to appear before you today. Sir David is accompanied by Gavin Francis, director of capital markets, the lead IASB staff director on the IAS 39 reform project. Gerrit Zalm, our chairman and your former colleague, apologises for not being able to attend. As one of the eight European-based trustees, I have been asked to accompany Sir David today.Since the beginning of the global economic crisis, the trustees have been actively engaged with the issues raised. We have committed ourselves to taking urgently all the actions necessary within our sphere of responsibility to respond to these issues.

As the crisis unfolded, the negotiations leading to the establishment of a public accountability link to the Monitoring Board were concluded. The Monitoring Board came into being early this year and has played its part in encouraging and supporting swift action by the IASCF. Whilst the European Commission has been present and has participated in our meetings with the Monitoring Board, we would greatly value its full participation in a body it helped to create and hope that may soon be possible.

Conscious of the urgency placed on the reform of IAS 39, the Trustees have strongly supported the need to complete the first part of the reform by year end. We have received regular updates in public meetings to ensure timely completion and fair consideration of stakeholder input. Before handing over to Sir David, I would make four points from the Trustee standpoint about the work to reform IAS 39.

01. The trustees are pleased with the unprecedented scale of the stakeholder engagement that the IASB has undertaken to complete its work, including with prudential supervisors and those tasked with co-ordinating the global regulatory response to the crisis.

02. The IASB has made real substantive adjustments to its original proposals to address issues raised by stakeholders. The Trustees believe these have improved the proposals and aided transparency.

03. The Trustees have been impressed with the pragmatic and listening approach that the IASB has taken.

04. The Trustees believe that the IASB’s developing proposals on a reformed IAS 39 represent a major step forward on a matter that has been contentious for years.

Prepared statement by Sir David Tweedie
Chairman of the IASB

I greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak to you regarding the status of the IASB’s revision of IAS 39. When I appeared before you in June, the Council emphasised the need to have a revised standard available for use this year. I gave a commitment to deliver on this timetable. We will publish the new standard in November.

The new standard on classification and measurement responds directly to the call of the G20 Leaders to ‘reduce the complexity of accounting standards for financial instruments’. As urged by the G20 Finance Ministers in September, we have taken ‘account of the Basel Committee guiding principles on IAS 39 and the report of the Financial Crisis Advisory Group’. Additionally, we have responded to issues raised by this Council regarding impairment and the fair value option and to subsequent concerns raised in the European Commission comment letter of 15 September on our proposals. We are working closely with the European Commission and the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) to facilitate a smooth endorsement. We have also briefed and received the advice of the Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) Committee of the European Parliament.

Download the full statement :

IFRS Returns to the Front Burner

by Marie Leone, CFO.com

Leading the charge to convert the world to International Financial Reporting Standards, David Tweedie says many of the problems opponents cite are being addressed and resolved. Is he right?

The debate over whether U.S. companies should be forced to use international accounting standards took on new life last month when the Securities and Exchange Commission assured investors, companies, and accountants that the project is still active. Once the SEC announced it hadn't lost sight of the project, criticism of International Financial Reporting Standards bubbled up again, with opponents making the same arguments they did when the SEC released the IFRS roadmap in 2007.

The main criticisms: training U.S. accountants and auditors by the proposed 2014 deadline would be impossible; the SEC would cede its regulatory power to a global regulator; the standard-setter that wrote the rules — the International Accounting Standards Board — would buckle under political pressure; and compared with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, IFRS is weak and would therefore invite accounting abuse.

But IASB chairman, David Tweedie, says those old complaints don't conform to current realities. He contends there won't be many differences, in fact, between U.S. GAAP and IFRS by the year 2015 if the current project to converge the two sets of rules continues at its current pace.

The agenda and time line for the convergence project, which was launched seven years ago by the IASB and its U.S. counterpart, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, will be updated at the end of the month during a three-day joint board meeting. As of today, the time line does not extend past 2011 — the year the SEC expects to vote on whether to move forward with mandatory adoption of IFRS, or to abandon the project.

Speaking to reporters at a Deloitte client conference in New York this week, Tweedie said obstacles regarding U.S. education have already fallen. For one thing, IFRS textbooks are already available in English from publishers in the United Kingdom and Australia.

What's more, by mid-2008 each of the Big Four accounting firms — who are major supporters of IFRS — had begun working with colleges to revamp curricula to include IFRS. (The American Accounting Assn., whose members are accounting professors, created a task force two years ago to develop IFRS curricula that could be rolled out to colleges.)

The notion that auditors are unprepared for the change also is a stretch, argued Tweedie. By his lights, any accounting firm that works with big or small multinationals already deals with financials prepared using IFRS. Further, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, which develops audit standards for privately held firms, has launched www.ifrs.com, a website aimed at providing its 300,000 members with training, resources, and updates on lobbying efforts on behalf of CPAs.

Last year, the AICPA also recognized the IASB as a standard-setter, which in effect allows U.S. auditors to express opinions on financial statements prepared using IFRS.

"The AICPA put IFRS on the same plane as U.S. GAAP"says Barry Epstein, a CPA and partner with litigation consultancy Russell Novak & Co.

"David Tweedie is right: the Momentum for IFRS is there; it is like a snowball rolling down a hill."

Epstein says the "watershed" event that fueled the creation of the SEC's IFRS roadmap — the proposal to move U.S. companies to IFRS by 2014 — was the 2007 SEC rule that waived the reconciliation requirement for foreign private issuers. As a result, foreign companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges were no longer required to reconcile their IFRS results with U.S. GAAP.

By giving permission "to the visiting team" to use IFRS, the SEC created an outcry among companies and investors for a level playing field that included a plan to allow American companies to file financial results in IFRS, says Epstein, adding that:

"... investors and companies must face the reality that IFRS is here to stay."

But opponents who contend that U.S. GAAP is the global gold standard for transparent and robust financial reporting say the lack of rules and guidance in IFRS invites accounting abuse. Critics taking that view include the New York State Society of CPAs, which, with its 30,000 members, is one of the country's largest groups of accountants.

In a comment letter filed with the SEC about the roadmap, the NYSSCPA panned the proposal, finding the quality of IFRS lacking and the conversion costs too hefty, and claiming that "carve-outs" — the exceptions to IFRS that different countries develop — impair the comparability and consistency of financial statements that investors rely on.

The group also echoed a common complaint heard among IFRS opponents: the IASB caved in to political pressure last year when it allowed companies to retroactively reclassify assets so they could "cherry-pick" those with significant losses and remove them from net-income calculations. Tweedie's retort is that if the IASB hadn't acted to control the rule change, the European Commission would have passed a law that changed the rule in a less desirable way.

The handful of comment letters that CFOs filed with the SEC about the roadmap reveal mixed reactions to IFRS. For instance, C. Bradford Richmond of Darden Restaurants wrote:

" The large majority of U.S. public companies, like Darden, serve primarily domestic customer bases and are adequately capitalized without tapping overseas capital markets. Rather than mandating IFRS for all companies, we believe it would be more appropriate to allow large multinational organizations to adopt IFRS on a voluntary basis."

Similarly, Elyse Douglas of The Hertz Corp. noted:

" In our opinion, there has been no groundswell of public opinion promoting a conversion to IFRS. In fact, we have never heard an investor in our company, any stock analyst covering Hertz, or any lender with which we do business suggest to us that they would prefer we report our results in IFRS."

Conversely, Martyn Webster of XenoPort Inc. wrote:

" If the U.S. remains outside of the IFRS framework, then we will somewhat compromise our ability to participate in, and influence, important matters related to the overall operations of global capital markets."

A new Deloitte survey that polled 150 corporate finance executives concluded that:

- 51% - of the respondents would support the SEC's roadmap for adopting IFRS, if the regulator considered pushing back the mandatory deadline a year, to 2015
- 19% - said they supported the roadmap "as it is"
- 15% - rejected the proposal.

The remaining executives said they were unsure how the SEC should proceed.

Tweedie contends that while some critics claim the SEC will lose power if American companies switch to IFRS, the opposite is true. "The SEC will increase power" if the U.S. moves to IFRS, he says. "The beauty of the SEC is that it is one of the world's most effective regulators, and that puts peer pressure on others."

That pressure will extend to private companies as well, noted D.J. Gannon, a Deloitte partner and the firm's IFRS expert, who also took part in the press briefing. He said that once the SEC acts to require public companies to file results using IFRS, larger private companies will follow in order to keep up with the competition. In addition, lenders to smaller private companies will demand it from their borrowers. "It will take time; we are not going to go from zero to 60 in three months," noted Gannon, who thinks that over the next few years, momentum to use IFRS will grow.

It wasn't until recently that the SEC weighed in on the progress of its own roadmap. Since becoming SEC chair in late January, Mary Schapiro had remained quiet on the subject of the roadmap, a project her Republican predecessor, Christopher Cox, launched during his term. Schapiro's silence led some observers to believe the SEC was backing off from IFRS altogether.

But recent public statements made by Schapiro and James Kroeker, the SEC's chief accountant, assured constituents that the IFRS project had a green light. Schapiro's silence was a way of "establishing her territory [and] showing she was not doing the bidding of the previous Administration," contends Epstein. "I don't think it is possible to stop [the move to IFRS] or delay it. It costs money to keep companies in limbo."

Others, including Charles Niemeier, a member and former acting chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, have criticized the "rush" to deploy IFRS in the United States. For his part, Niemeier would like to see the IASB-FASB convergence project finished before requiring U.S. companies to file in IFRS. That, he thinks, would ensure that the combined standards remain stringent.

A precipitous exit from GAAP undermines the U.S. regulatory system and places "in jeopardy the thing that gives the U.S. a competitive advantage," he noted at an industry meeting in 2008.

" All research shows that the U.S. is unique in its regulation. No country is as effective.... We have the lowest cost of capital in the world. Do we really want to give that up"?

Additional reporting by: David McCann & Jason Karaian.

IAS 32 : IASB Amendment : Presentation

www.iasb.org

Classification for Rights Issues
The International Accounting Standards Board issued an amendment to IAS 32 Financial Instruments : Presentation.

The amendment addresses the accounting for rights issues (rights, options or warrants) that are denominated in a currency other than the functional currency of the issuer. Previously such rights issues were accounted for as derivative liabilities. However, the amendment issued today requires that, provided certain conditions are met, such rights issues are classified as equity regardless of the currency in which the exercise price is denominated.

The global financial crisis has led to an increase in the number of such rights issues as entities seek to raise additional capital. The IASB has moved swiftly to address this issue.

Entities are required to apply the amendment for annual periods beginning on or after 1 February 2010, but earlier application is permitted. Classification of Rights Issues (Amendment to IAS 32) is available for eIFRS subscribers from today. Printed copies (ISBN 978-1-907026-40-9) will be available shortly, at £10 plus shipping, from IASC Foundation

Exposure Draft

The proposals seek to clarify the accounting treatment when rights issues are denominated in a currency other than the functional currency of the issuer. Current practice appears to require such issues to be accounted for as derivative liabilities. The proposals state that if such rights are issued pro rata to an entity’s existing shareholders for a fixed amount of currency, they should be classified as equity regardless of the currency in which the exercise price is denominated.

Download the IAS 32 Amendment

SEC supports IFRS and Seeks Common Goal for Accounts

by Brooke Masters, Basel : Financial Times

"The US remains committed to creating a single global accounting standard for public companies". Mary Schapiro, SEC, Chairwoman

Schapiro told the technical committee of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions in Basel, Switzerland, that regulators would announce a plan in the autumn for moving toward that goal.

“We must not lose sight of the fact that the purpose of accounting standards is to provide a clear and accurate picture of a company’s financial condition for investors ... I remain committed to the goal of a global set of high-quality accounting standards,” Mrs Schapiro said.

The US remains the most significant country not to have adopted the use of the international standards promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board, preferring the GAAP standards set by the US-based Financial Accounting Standards Board. US officials have long promised to work towards harmonisation.

Under Mrs Schapiro’s predecessor, the SEC proposed a roadmap suggesting that: "US companies might be able to begin using International Financial Reporting Standards, as soon as 2014". But the global financial crash widened some of the gaps between US and international standards.

US standard setters in April softened fair value accounting rules for banks, which have allowed them to avoid taking paper losses on assets they intend to hold. When the IASB declined to follow suit, some European politicians complained that their financial institutions were at a competitive disadvantage.

"Now, convergence is once again at the top of the agenda".

The Group of 20 leading industrialised nations agreed last month in Pittsburgh on the need for common standards by 2011.

Mrs Schapiro pledged the SEC would do its part, saying that the regulator was reviewing the extensive feedback it had received on last year’s roadmap proposals. She also urged the assembled regulators to fight hard for the regulatory changes needed to prevent a repeat of last autumn’s financial collapse.

“We, as regulators, must not lose our focus on reforming the system,” Schapiro said.

Jane Diplock, chairman of both IOSCO and the New Zealand Securities regulator, praised Mrs Schapiro for pushing ahead on accounting, saying she was “optimistic” that a single standard would be the result.

AICPA : IFRS Background Document

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has recently issued a background document on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The growing acceptance of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as a basis for U.S. financial reporting represents a fundamental change for the U.S. accounting profession. Today approximately 113 countries require or allow the use of IFRS for the preparation of financial statements by publicly held companies. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a proposed roadmap for the possible mandatory use of IFRS for U.S. public companies.

Download the document at:
http://www.ifrs.com/pdf/IFRSUpdate_V8.pdf

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, with approximately 340,000 members, is the national professional organization for certified public accountants in the United States. Well before IFRS began to gain traction in the U.S. business and regulatory communities, the AICPA was publicly supporting the goal of a single set of high quality, global accounting standards to be used in public company financial reporting throughout the world. In May 2008, the AICPA's governing Council voted to amend Rules 202 and 203 of the AICPA's Code of Professional Conduct to recognize the International Accounting Standards Board as an international accounting standard setter in the U.S.

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

Follow IFRSnews on Twitter!
http://www.twitter.com/IFRSnews

Updated IFRS and IAS Summaries (2009)

International Accounting Standards Board

Framework : Technical Summary
The IASB Framework was approved by the IASC Board in April 1989 for publication in July 1989, and adopted by the IASB in April 2001.

IFRS : International Financial Reporting Standards

• IFRS 1 First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards
• IFRS 2 Share-based Payment
• IFRS 3 Business Combinations
• IFRS 4 Insurance Contracts
• IFRS 5 Non-current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations
• IFRS 6 Exploration for and evaluation of Mineral Resources
• IFRS 7 Financial Instruments: Disclosures
• IFRS 8 Operating Segments

IAS : International Accounting Standards

• IAS 1 | Presentation of Financial Statements
• IAS 2 | Inventories
• IAS 7 | Statement of Cash Flows
• IAS 8 | Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors
• IAS 10 | Events After the Balance Sheet Date
• IAS 11 | Construction Contracts
• IAS 12 | Income Taxes
• IAS 16 | Property, Plant and Equipment
• IAS 17 | Leases
• IAS 18 | Revenue
• IAS 19 | Employee Benefits
• IAS 20 | Accounting for Government Grants and Disclosure of Government Assistance
• IAS 21 | The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates
• IAS 23 | Borrowing Costs
• IAS 24 | Related Party Disclosures
• IAS 26 | Accounting and Reporting by Retirement Benefit Plans
• IAS 27 | Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements
• IAS 28 | Investments in Associates
• IAS 29 | Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies
• IAS 31 | Interests in Joint Ventures
• IAS 32 | Financial Instruments: Presentation
• IAS 33 | Earnings per Share
• IAS 34 | Interim Financial Reporting
• IAS 36 | Impairment of Assets
• IAS 37 | Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets
• IAS 38 | Intangible Assets
• IAS 39 | Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement
• IAS 40 | Investment Property
• IAS 41 | Agriculture

SEC to refocus on IFRS Roadmap

by Emily Chasan, New York, Reuters.com

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will make it a priority in the coming months to refocus on a proposed roadmap to move U.S. companies to international accounting standards.

"Turning back to the roadmap will be an important priority for us this fall," Jim Kroeker, the SEC's new chief accountant said in remarks to a New York State Society of CPAs conference in New York.

Last November, in one of the last major projects of the SEC under former Chairman Christopher Cox, the SEC staff released a proposed roadmap that would have U.S. companies filing financial results under International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, by 2014, with the option for some companies to adopt the rules earlier.

Kroeker, who took up his post last month, said on Thursday that in the more than 200 comment letters the SEC has received on the proposal, it was "resoundingly clear" that people agree there should be a single set of global high-quality accounting standards, but there were striking differences in how different groups wanted to accomplish that goal.

Kroeker said the SEC staff, as "an important next step," would work on how to put into place various pillars and milestones to reach that goal.

IFRS is written by the London-based International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), while the traditional U.S. accounting rules - known as U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) - are written by the Norwalk, Connecticut-based Financial Accounting Standards Board.

Kroeker noted two accounting rule-makers have been working to align both sets of rules over the past few years and recently accelerated certain projects to promote convergence.

But he urged those working to try to align U.S. and international accounting standards to avoid "a race to the bottom," where in a rush to converge the rules, accounting standard setters are urged to adopt the least controversial version of the rules, rather than the one that would best represent economic reality.

"A race to the bottom is an absolute concern I have," Kroeker said. "If we engage in a race to the bottom ultimately there will be no winner in that race."

Editing by Maureen Bavdek

Lessons Learned from the Financial Crisis

Journal of Accountancy

Personal financial planning specialists discuss the altered investment landscape.

Since the onset of the economic crisis last fall, many CPAs who are personal financial planning specialists have been working overtime to reassure clients overwhelmed with fear about the future and safety of their investments and to reassess and reorient investment portfolios when necessary.

Members of the AICPA’s Personal Financial Planning (PFP) Section recently reflected on their experiences from the past year and their outlook for the future. Lyle Benson, a member of the AICPA’s PFP Section for 20 years, moderated the discussion on behalf of the JofA.

Here are some excerpts from that gathering:

COMMUNICATE WITH CLIENTS

Journal of Accountancy:
When the economy took a downturn, what was the reaction of your clients? What steps did you take to work with them through the turbulent market?

Jerry Love: I strongly emphasized the overstatement of the state of the economy by the mainstream news media and my firm belief in the existence of underlying economic principles that would prevent the country from going into another Great Depression. When I reminded my clients in West Texas of what we experienced during the late ’80s—an oil and gas industry crash, along with a major collapse of commercial real estate and the almost complete disappearance of the savings and loan industry causing many community banks to fail and resulting in double-digit unemployment and a major contraction of the available lending options, most would say, “You’re right. It can be very bad and still recover.”

Michael Goodman: We spent a lot of time reaching out to clients during this period, taking the focus off what was happening “today” in their portfolios and putting it back on their original goals and the time frame for when they actually need money and where the markets will be when they likely need their funds, whether it’s seven, 10, 20 or 30 years out

Beth Gamel: People were really worried that they were going to run out of money and not have enough to provide for themselves. Because people were so agitated, it was important to have more frequent meetings, phone calls, and e-mail exchanges with clients because they needed a lot of handholding and to know that you were available to them and that you were listening.

Scott Sprinkle: We wanted to reach out to our clients in as many ways as possible to make sure they understood their investment policy statement and overall investment plan. While the market pullback was severe and the degree of the pullback unexpected, the risk had been planned for in advance. We “stress tested” the client’s portfolio, looked at asset allocations, and made sure that clients understood the construction of their portfolio. Specifically, for retired individuals, our plans recommend three to five years of living expenses allocated between cash, short-term bonds and other high-quality, low-risk assets.

We reminded clients of the amount of work completed to establish their investment plan and that the plan accounted for market volatility. This provided some comfort and allowed clients to stay prudently allocated until the market rebounded. The last thing we wanted any client to do was panic and sell out at the bottom.

That’s where CPAs in general do a better job than most advisers: focusing on the front end and the development of a comprehensive plan versus just buying assets. This allows clients to focus on what is important in tough times and allows them to stay disciplined in their investment approach.

RE-EDUCATE, RE-ASSESS
AND REVISE WHEN NECESSARY

Did anyone else follow this approach of stepping back and re-educating clients on their portfolios in light of market changes or in terms of their overall goals and planning? What did you do to help reorient investment portfolios in light of these times?

Gamel: In my practice, I only do financial planning and investment advisory work. In order for a client to become an investment advisory client, we have to go through an initial financial plan, which involves retirement projections and asset allocation development. Even if you’d done that within the last couple of years, many clients no longer had confidence in those numbers. One of the most important first steps was to sit down and reassess people’s risk tolerances. In many cases that meant starting with what their asset base is today and redoing those projections to see if they might be at risk of running out of money or if some tweaking of their asset allocation or their spending could give them the confidence to believe that they could manage with their current assets.

Goodman: We had our clients go through an independent score-based risk tolerance test. We sat down and discussed the reconciliation between what their risk tolerance is saying their portfolios could be and their required rate of return. For example, if their risk tolerance says they need a portfolio that’s only 40% stocks but we know that their need from a rate of return standpoint is 60% or 70% stocks, the difference has to be reconciled.

Susan Tillery: When the downturn hit, our clients did not get anxious due to our firm’s philosophy. When we initially sit down with our clients, we discuss a conservative approach: seeking the lowest rate of return with the least amount of risk (standard deviation) to be able to achieve their goals. Because this is a long-term approach, no changes were necessary in their asset allocation or portfolios. Our clients understand the purpose of their investment portfolio is not to get rich quick, or accumulate money for money’s sake. We also use software to determine a client’s risk tolerance/indifference curves.

DEVELOP A DEFENSIVE STRATEGY
GOING FORWARD

If a client’s risk tolerance has changed as a result of stock market volatility, how are you advising them?

Goodman: It’s become standard in some portfolios to put aside a certain amount of a year’s cash flow for clients that are taking income aside. Such that the client could say, “For the next five years, I can see where my cash flow is coming from. So I’m not so worried about this other money I have invested for the present because I don’t need it at a minimum until year 6.” We were doing this in the past but are being more diligent about it now.

Also, within the portfolio asset allocation there’s always been stocks, bonds, and “other,” which is a bucket of things like commodities and real estate that are less correlated to the movement of stocks and bonds. Now we are looking harder at trying to mix different things like structured notes into the “other” bucket in order to give clients some diversification from traditional stocks and bonds.

Sprinkle: During volatile times, diversification and understanding what you are investing in becomes even more important. We reduced client municipal bond allocations in the last quarter of 2008 due to quality concerns and looked for additional diversification and more secure asset classes. Part of the allocation was moved to well- diversified investment-grade corporate bonds, and the rewards were immense. Additionally, we analyzed cash returns. While during the meltdown, cash was the place to be, real returns were still zero, particularly after tax and inflation. We completed significant due diligence on high-quality, ultra-short funds.

By increasing the duration of the investment paper from 30-day instruments to 90-day instruments, we were able to pick up 300 to 400 basis points of return. We are continuing to communicate with clients on their risk tolerance while looking for investment alternatives that further diversify their portfolio and take advantage of pricing discrepancies in the market. There are significant opportunities in many misunderstood sectors. Currently, long-term investors have an opportunity to achieve significant returns with reduced levels of risk in several market sectors and asset classes.

Some of you don’t get directly involved in managing the clients’ assets. What role do you play in the planning process?

Tillery: As part of our financial planning process, we sit down with the client and write their investment policy statement. We then meet with their investment professional to discuss the client’s asset allocation. The investment professional then brings back suggestions for each asset class with an explanation of why they’re making the suggestion. We always make sure that the portfolio has some negatively correlated assets within each asset class.

Love: Our strategy is not to manage investments, so we pair the client with a broker to help ensure that the products and the overall mix make sense for the client. I’ve seen an increase in people who have been trading and picking their own investments who are now more willing to go to an active manager. They have begun to see the value of having the funds actively managed by someone who’s got a good track record who knows how to figure out the market.

PURSUE TAX-PLANNING OPPORTUNITIES

What tax and estate planning strategies/ opportunities do CPAs need to act on with clients?

Gamel: This is where CPAs who don’t have all of the credentials or whose practice doesn’t incorporate investment planning can provide a lot of services to clients. Probably the only positive thing about last year’s market meltdown was it gave people the opportunity to make some changes or reposition their portfolio or simply take capital losses, which offset gains earned earlier in the year or provided capital loss carryforwards. The other thing is talking to clients about the gifting and valuation opportunities, where you would then use less of your unified credit or your GST (generation-skipping tax) because you’re transferring assets that have a depressed value.

And while the section 7520 rate has gone up a little bit, it was really, really low, and so there were opportunities to create charitable lead trusts and GRATs (grantor retained annuity trusts) and consider other sorts of estate planning and gifting strategies. Lastly, we’re all poised to be talking to clients about Roth conversions in 2010 because of the ability to do that regardless of what your AGI is and the two years to pay the tax on the conversion.

But there’s a good reason to be talking to clients who might have the ability to keep their AGI below $100,000 even this year to do a conversion with the depressed value of their portfolios.

Love: The depressed economic environment is giving an opportunity for conversion from C corporation to sub S. Just like the stock market, most businesses would have a lesser value right now for a number of factors than they might have earlier, so if you do your valuation on a C corporation and convert to a sub S, you’ve got a great window for that.

Sprinkle: When clients are panicking, it is a hard time to convince them to take advantage of historically low interest rates and estate planning techniques that should be a slam dunk to implement. Congress is currently reviewing several tried-and- true estate planning techniques that have been used successfully for years.

Examples include GRATs, GRUTs (grantor retained unitrusts), SCINs (self-canceling installment notes), charitable trusts and family limited partnerships. Clients who hesitate may lose the opportunity to implement some of these techniques. It is a beneficial time for several of these techniques, and CPAs should be reviewing alternatives with clients while opportunities still exist.

SEIZE OPPORTUNITIES FOR GROWTH

These last 12 months have had a significant impact on the things CPAs are doing with their clients. Has it caused you to rethink your business models? For example, the assets under management (AUM) business model has a huge impact on revenue streams, which may have been affected by the uncertainty in the market. Is this causing you to reassess your business models going forward?

Goodman: If your firm operates under the assets under management revenue model, compensation and revenue have most likely been down. It’s been a tough period, but I have no intention of changing my model. With any business there are risks to revenue streams. While the markets are down, it is also a good opportunity to get out into the marketplace and bring in new revenue through people who are looking to potentially change advisers. One might even argue that this downturn has been a significant opportunity to grow the business, and when the markets do get back, we’ll all potentially be way ahead of where we would have been anyway.

When you’re taking a new client, there’s a lot more work done upfront especially in terms of financial planning. How does this type of work relate to your compensation model (retainer- based, AUM-based, or hourly)?

Gamel: Our firm has a variety of ways to get compensated. We have pure AUM, and those fees clearly have gone down. Fortunately, the performance of our accounts is better than the typical market, so our fees are not down as much as 30%, for example. We also have fixed fees, retainers and a few hourly clients, so our income stream hasn’t gone down nearly as much as if we were in a pure AUM environment.

The bigger struggle is that we do a lot of financial planning along with investment advisory work, and yet many of our fees are strictly AUM. So there is a disconnect, where you’re doing more work than ever on the financial planning side, but your fees keep going down. The current environment presents a struggle between the amount of work you’re doing and the fees you’re getting.

Sprinkle: As a family office that provides several client services, it is very important for us to have our fee model unbundled and to separate investment management from the other projects. That is not to say that we don’t offer some free planning advice to investment clients. However, when we get involved in significant financial, estate or tax planning projects, we bill separately. Some of these projects may require hundreds of hours, and including them under an AUM model would be cost-prohibitive. All of our services are billed on a fee-only basis (AUM, hourly or a fixed fee).

Additionally, we spend a significant amount of upfront time communicating and disclosing to clients how they will be billed for services. Managing client expectations and providing value for services rendered will be the key to your success. There are several fee models available for CPA firms, and it is important to analyze which model fits your firm’s practice.

What’s the outlook for the future?

Love: Because of the downturn in the economy and what’s happening in the market, people are cutting back greatly on their spending. The second quarter savings rate was 5.2% in the U.S., compared with 4.0% in the first quarter. A USA Today article indicated about 27% to 32% of people are spending less now and intending to continue saving. I think the AICPA’s financial literacy program is starting to make sense to a lot of people because they’ve had a life lesson here to make it make sense.

Tillery: There is an incredible opportunity, especially for small to medium CPA firms, to viably grow their practices through financial planning. It is time for CPAs, as the client’s trusted adviser, to merge financial planning into the process. CPAs who want to offer financial planning should become certified through the PFS credential.

The Panelists:

Lyle K. Benson Jr. CPA/PFS, CFP, is president and founder of L.K. Benson & Co., a CPA financial planning firm based in Baltimore. He works with high-net-worth families and individuals in the areas of personal financial planning, investment advisory and tax services. He has been an active member of the AICPA PFP Section for more than 20 years and currently serves on the AICPA Advanced Personal Financial Planning Conference planning committee.

Beth C. Gamel CPA/PFS, is co-founder and executive vice president of Pillar Financial Advisors in Waltham, Mass. She has been a financial planner for 25 years, helping wealthy individuals evaluate, coordinate and implement sophisticated investment, estate, income tax and charitable giving strategies. For seven consecutive years Worth Magazine has named her one of the “best financial advisers” in the country. From 1996 to 2001 she wrote “Money Makeovers” for The Boston Globe, which described her as one of “New England’s leading financial planners.”

Michael E. Goodman CPA/PFS, CFP, is president of Wealthstream Advisors Inc., a wealth management firm in New York. He is also a member of the AICPA PFP Executive Committee and chair of the Advanced Personal Financial Planning Conference.

Jerry Love CPA/ABV/PFS/CFF, CVA, CFP, is the president and CEO of Davis Kinard & Co. PC, which is the largest CPA firm in Abilene, Texas. In 2006–07, he was chairman of the Texas Society of CPAs (TSCPA). He received the TSCPA “Distinguished Public Service Award” in 2000. CPA Magazine named him one of the Top 100 Most Influential Practitioners in the country for 2006, and in May 2009 the magazine named him one of the Top 40 CPAs to Know During a Recession.

Scott Sprinkle CPA/PFS, CFP, is a co-founder and managing member of Sprinkle & Associates LLC and Sprinkle Financial Consultants LLC. He has more than 20 years of experience serving high-net-worth individuals and family offices. He is a member of the AICPA’s Personal Financial Planning Executive Committee and the AICPA Investment Resource Panel. He is also a trustee and board member of the Colorado Society of CPAs and an editorial adviser to the JofA.

Susan Tillery CPA/PFS, CFP, is a fee-only comprehensive financial planner. She and her firm do not manage assets or sell products. She is president and CEO of Paraklete Financial Inc.

Accounting Leaders Recommend Changes to IASB's Constitution

by Alexandra Defelice and Matthew G. Lamoreaux
Journal of Accountancy

To be most effective, international financial reporting standards should be field-tested prior to adoption, and the international standard setter needs to more clearly communicate its processes while gathering stakeholders’ opinions, a group of global accounting leaders including AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon told the representatives of the International Accounting Standards Board during a roundtable discussion in New York City on Tuesday.

The roundtable was one of several taking place around the globe as the second part of a two-part review and public comment period of the constitution of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation (IASCF), the oversight body of the IASB that is required to review its constitution every five years.

Based in London, the IASB sets International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which are recognized in 113 countries. The SEC is considering whether to require U.S. publicly traded corporations to use IFRS for financial reports in U.S. markets as soon as 2014, according to its proposed road map.

The first part of the IASCF constitutional review process was completed Jan. 29 and included creation of a monitoring board made up of securities regulators as well as a provision that will increase the IASB from 14 to 16 members by 2012, with criteria added to ensure geographical diversity.

The second part includes proposed changes such as allowing greater flexibility in liaisons with other stakeholder organizations, changes to the length of IASB member terms, inclusion of trustees from Africa and South America, establishing a procedure for the possibility of an accelerated due process, and changing the name of the IASC Foundation and the IASB to the IFRS Foundation and IFRS Board, respectively, to better reflect its mission.

Field testing has been discussed in the past, but attendees at Tuesday’s roundtable stressed the importance of doing so when setting financial reporting standards. Philip Bancroft, CFO of ACE, a member of Group of North American Insurance Enterprises, went as far as to suggest it should be mandated.

“ Moving forward without it doesn’t make sense because we don’t understand the implications,” Bancroft said. “It ought to be embodied in the constitution to say that should be a part of due process to have comprehensive field testing to understand the effects of a far-reaching standard. It should be mandated.”

Though he offered no comment as to whether he believed inclusion in the constitution is necessary, Dave Kaplan, a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and leader of the firm’s International Accounting and SEC Services Group, agreed with the importance and benefits.

“Field testing is one of the best ways to apply (standards) to procedures various companies have. It’s very effective in understanding where some of those operational challenges are and how those standard setters need to monitor the processes,” Kaplan said. “Deep field testing hasn’t been as comprehensive as it may have been in the past. It’s something the board may want to think about.”

Melancon agreed:
“ The complexity of a worldwide standard makes this concept even more important to understand if it’s implementable in different cultures with different standards." "... When it comes to transparency, Bancroft believes almost nothing should be kept behind closed doors. “Everything should be made public except very narrow personnel matters,” he said.

IASCF trustees explained that they have improved their feedback process to be more comprehensive and to deal with all the key substantial points made by commentators, but said they remain open to stakeholder feedback on how they can improve the process.

Kaplan said he would like to see even more done.
“Providing underlying logic and reasoning for decisions that get made would be very helpful to constituents for understanding the perspective of the board and future considerations to be made.”

Antonio Vegezzi, former president and director of Capital International (Switzerland) and an IASCF trustee for five years, acknowledged that the trustees previously did not focus as much on communication but that they have hired a director of communication and are focusing on making sure trustees listen to stakeholders, reply to their questions and connect with them.

“In selection of candidates to IASB positions, we as trustees look at people with outstanding technical skills but also who have this willingness to reach out and communicate,” he said.

A much-debated proposal during the roundtable was allowing for a public consultation process of less than 30 days in “exceptional circumstances… when major unforeseen developments arise.”

Such circumstances should be “rare,” Bancroft said, adding that making decisions quickly rather than with a comprehensive process won’t produce better results.

Kaplan went further, saying that 30 days should be a minimum because larger global organizations cannot adequately assess and comment in less time than that.

A separate area of particular importance to the AICPA is the need for a permanent independent funding source for the IASB.

The IASB’s 14 members come from nine countries, including the United States. It is funded by contributions from major accounting firms, private financial institutions and industrial companies, central and development banks, and other international and professional organizations throughout the world.

During the roundtable, Melancon reiterated the AICPA’s point of view, stating, “a permanent funding solution would ensure that the IASB has appropriate resources to carry out its mission and would lead to worldwide confidence in the IASB’s role as an independent accounting standard setter.”

In an (April 9) comment letter to the SEC, Melancon encouraged the commission to use part of the current levy on U.S. public companies for accounting standard-setting activities as a permanent funding source for the IASB.

Asked whether trustees would have the ability to determine the budget if granted this funding, Melancon said yes, to a degree. "If (the board has) an automatic funding mechanism, I don't think a checks and balances process is unreasonable," he told them. "Trustees would have to be able to defend their budget. I don't think anyone would give you carte blanche."

The consultation document Constitution Review - Proposals for enhanced public accountability can be viewed on the Open for Comment section on the IASC Foundation Website. The closing date for comments is Nov. 30, 2009. www.iasb.org

IASC: New Editions: "Guide through IFRS" & "IFRS Taxonomy Guide Illustrated"

www.iasb.org

The IASC Foundation will soon publish the "Guide through IFRS" and the "IFRS Taxonomy Illustrated".



The printed publications will be soon available to the public. In order to receive notification, or to pre-order and receive a pro-forma invoice, please click on the images.

"A Guide through IFRS" Price: £90

Available in hard copy soon and online in Q4 2009, A Guide through International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), includes the full consolidated text of the Standards and Interpretations and accompanying documents-illustrative examples, implementation guidance, bases for conclusions and dissenting opinion-issued by the IASB as at 1 July 2009, with extensive cross-references and other annotations. The book, A Guide through IFRS July 2009 - (ISBN 978-1-907026-20-1), approximately 3,008 pages, is priced £90 each (plus shipping).
Discounts are available for multiple copies, students/academics and residents of middle and low income countries. IASB Comprehensive Subscribers will automatically receive a copy of the new "Guide through IFRS July 2009" when it becomes available.

" IFRS Taxonomy Illustrated " Price: £15

Physically, the IFRS Taxonomy consists of a set of electronic XBRL files and, therefore, it can be difficult for those not familiar with XBRL to understand the structure of the Taxonomy without the use of software. The "IFRS Taxonomy Illustrated" presents a simplified view of the IFRS Taxonomy in an easy to read, visual format that does not require knowledge of XBRL. It has been specially prepared for accountants, auditors and those wanting a comprehensive overview of the structure and content of the IFRS Taxonomy, in order to promote understanding of the Taxonomy and assist with preparing IFRS financial reports in XBRL format.

The "IFRS Taxonomy Illustrated" sets out the hierarchy of the Taxonomy and the elements within it (which represent IFRS disclosure requirements), the required format of these elements (such as text, monetary values, etc), and the IFRSs and IASs that these elements relate to. To meet the needs of preparers, the "IFRS Taxonomy Illustrated" has been released in two versions - the Taxonomy organised according to financial statements, and the Taxonomy organised by IFRSs (i.e. in the same order as the Bound Volume of IFRSs).

Registered IFRS website subscribers can also access HTML versions in Arabic, English (organised by financial statements or IFRSs) and Spanish, with translations into other key languages are to be made available over the coming months.

FASB : XBRL Functionality Added to Codification

Accounting Standards Codification

FASB announced that it has added new XBRL functionality to its Accounting Standards Codification Web site. http://asc.fasb.org

“ The new XBRL functionality provided by the Codification Web site will help entities as they prepare or plan to prepare XBRL financial statements using the U.S. Financial Reporting Taxonomy” .

“... Users will be able to very easily identify the XBRL elements associated with specific Codification paragraphs”, said FASB Chairman Robert Herz.

The FASB Codification, which is effective for interim and annual periods ending after Sept. 15, 2009, provides a list of all XBRL elements that contain an electronic link to a Codification paragraph. It provides the complete XBRL element names together with all Codification paragraphs referenced by a particular XBRL element.

To ensure that the taxonomy references the authoritative literature in the Codification rather than the superseded legacy literature, XBRL-US announced in August that it had published a taxonomy extension including the Codification references. The Codification references include both the text-based Codification reference (in the form of topic, subtopic, section, paragraph, and subparagraph) and an electronic link to the related codification paragraphs.

FASB’s Notice to Constituents (requires login to FASB Codification) provides additional background regarding Codification references and electronic links embedded in the U.S. Financial Reporting Taxonomy.

The current changes to the FASB Codification follow the SEC’s rule effective April 13, 2009, that requires all public companies to begin providing XBRL versions of their SEC filings over a three-year phase-in period. Approximately 500 of the largest public companies, each with a worldwide public float greater than $5 billion, began filing for interim financial statements with periods ending on or after June 15, 2009.

All other large accelerated filers (with public floats below $5 billion that file under U.S. GAAP) are expected to start filing in XBRL in June 2010. In 2011, all remaining companies using U.S. GAAP and all foreign private issuers that prepare their financial statements in accordance with IFRS as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board will be subject to the same requirements.

The XBRL data, which the SEC calls “interactive data,” is required to supplement—but not replace—a company’s traditional electronic filing formats (ASCII or HTML) for annual and quarterly reports, transition reports for a change in fiscal year, and reports that contain updated or revised versions of financial statements. Companies also are required to post the XBRL version on their corporate Web site, if they maintain one.

The U.S. GAAP Taxonomy for XBRL was developed by XBRL US—the nonprofit consortium for XML business reporting standards—under contract with the SEC as a digital dictionary containing a comprehensive set of reporting elements that include U.S. GAAP requirements and common reporting practices.

IASB : Chairman's Statement to the European Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee

www.iasb.org

Statement of IASB Chairman Sir David Tweedie, 28.09.2009, European Parliament, Brussels

Madam Chairwoman, Members of the Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) Committee, I welcome this opportunity to appear before you today to present how we at the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are responding to issues arising from the financial crisis. I will focus my formal remarks on our response on the financial crisis and, in particular, our response to issues raised by EU institutions. However, I should be happy to discuss any other issues that members of the Committee wish to raise.

I am particularly pleased that you have made time to allow me to provide an update on the IASB’s work at this critical juncture for financial markets. I and my colleagues on the IASB look forward to working with the Committee in the coming years, and we remain committed to seeking your input on important aspects of our work at an early stage in the decision-making process. I also know that the Trustees of the IASC Foundation, the IASB’s oversight body, have already expressed their willingness to meet the Committee later this year.

This session is particularly timely. The G20 leaders met last week and have repeatedly affirmed the importance of achieving a single set of high quality global accounting standards. This is something that the European Union and your predecessors on this Committee recognised well in advance of the current crisis. The European Union’s strategy to adopt an international standard, rather than a particularly European one, has been vindicated.

As a direct result of your leadership in this area, over 100 countries now require or permit the use of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) issued by the IASB. It is crucial for the achievement of global standards and the effective functioning and prosperity of the European economy, and indeed the global economy, that the EU remains committed to global standards.

An active and measured response to the financial crisis

Today, in the limited time that we have for this session, I should like to explain what we have already done and what we are currently doing in response to the financial crisis. It is a priority of the IASB to keep EU institutions – and other relevant stakeholders - informed of our activities. I would certainly welcome your views today.

Earlier in the year, I had the opportunity to meet with EU Finance Ministers in June and I have been invited to their October meeting to provide a further update. We are also in regular contact with the European Commission. I am also including, as part of my written statement, a copy of a letter that Gerrit Zalm, the Chairman of the IASC Foundation Trustees, sent to the G20 on 15 September that describes our actions in greater detail.

Today, I want to give members of this Committee confidence that the IASB has responded appropriately to the crisis and to the specific issues raised in Europe. Last week, the Monitoring Board, in which the European Commission currently participates, set out important principles to guide our response to the financial crisis.

The Monitoring Board emphasised, ’the primary objective of financial reporting as being to provide information on an entity’s financial performance in a way that is useful for decision-making for present and potential investors. To be considered decision-useful, information provided through the application of the accounting standards must, at a minimum, be relevant, reliable, understandable and comparable.’ These are principles that we have applied and will continue to apply in response to the financial crisis.

In developing an effective response to the crisis, the IASB has sought the advice of experts from a wide range of backgrounds. Jointly with the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), we asked the Financial Crisis Advisory Group (FCAG), a group of leaders with broad experience in international financial markets to advise the two boards on their joint response to the crisis.

Prominent European members of this group include:

Hans Hoogervorst
Chairman of the AFM (the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets)
Stephen Haddrill
Director General of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and shortly to become Chief Executive of the UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC)
Michel Prada
former Chairman of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF)
Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa
former Finance Minister of Italy
Klaus-Peter Müller
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Commerzbank
Lucas Papademos
Vice-President of the European Central Bank

The FCAG reported at the end of July, and the IASB is working to implement the relevant recommendations.

Actions taken to respond to global concerns

From the outset of the crisis, the IASB has worked on a defined programme with time lines to address issues arising from the financial crisis. Our initial focus was on the three areas identified by the Financial Stability Forum: 1) the application of fair value in illiquid markets; 2) accounting for off balance sheet items; and 3) disclosures related to risk. On all three points, we have acted urgently.

On fair value in illiquid markets, we produced a report in October 2008 that the European Commission praised. We have consistently stated that IFRS and US guidance are consistent in this important area. I know that there was concern that the recent FASB Staff Position on fair value measurement might have created a new unlevel playing field. It is for this reason that immediately after the FASB’s publication, we posted a press release reiterating that our approach was consistent with the FASB’s. As an extra precaution to ensure that global consistency is maintained, on 28 May 2009 the IASB published an exposure draft on fair value measurement that directly incorporates the relevant FASB guidance.

On off balance sheet items, the G20, the Financial Stability Forum, and this Council have all emphasised the need for more transparency in the accounting for these items. There is some evidence that IFRSs have held up relatively well on this issue, but we have now proposed tightening our rules further.

On risk disclosures, in March 2009 the IASB published improvements to the disclosure requirements for fair value measurements and reinforced existing principles for disclosures about the liquidity risk associated with financial instruments.

Read the full statement at: http://bit.ly/wd70n

FCM : 8th Annual Conference in Bucharest, 02.10.2009, Romania

www.fcmweb.org

The Mediterranean Accountancy Profession in a Turbulent Economy: A Solid Accounting Infrastructure to Strengthen Transparency and Accountability in the Region

FCM is organising its 8th Annual Conference, which will take place in Bucharest on the 2nd of October, 2009. The Conference will mark the 10th anniversary of FCM. It will be held in the Hotel Radisson SAS in Bucharest and hosted by CECCAR (Corpul Expertilor Contabili si Contabililor Autorizati din Romania), which represents the accountancy profession in Romania. The conference will be addressed by Mr. George Samothrakis, Executive President of the FCM Board and Vice President of the Greek Institute of Certified Public Accountants (SOEL).

In light of the ongoing financial and economic crisis and with the prospective of also discussing the vital role that the Accounting and Auditing profession can play, FCM has organised this Conference to provide a deeper understanding of the issues in question, particularly in the light of their impact on the Mediterranean region. Specific emphasis will also be given to the issues affecting Small and Medium Practices and Small and Medium Enterprises. Among others, it will have the participation of representatives from the EU Commission, the World Bank, the FEE, the IFAC and the Economist.

Conference Registration Form:
http://www.fcmweb.org/documenti/fcm%20conference%20ext%20%20registration%20form%20(with%20visa).doc

FCM : The Federation of Mediterranean Certified Accountants / Fédération des Experts Comptables Mediterranéens, represents the accountancy profession in the Mediterranean area. FCM is a non-profit association created at the end of 1999 on the initiative of a number of leaders of national accounting institutes in the Mediterranean area. Its membership consists of 21 professional institutes of accountants from 16 Mediterranean countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Malta, Morocco, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey), plus two associate members, ACCA and FIDEF. FCM member bodies are present in 8 member states of the European Union, and represent more than 320.000 professionals. 19 FCM Member Bodies are IFAC members.

Συνεργασία ΣΟΕΛ και ACCA : Νέες Προοπτικές στην Πιστοποιημένη Εκπαίδευση

Διαβάστε online το άρθρο του Στέλιου Ντότσια,
Executive Director της Globaltraining,
στη "Λογιστική Εκπαίδευση": http://bit.ly/17V3og

IAS 39 : IASB Update : Classification and Measurement

Financial instruments: Replacement of IAS 39

The International Accounting Standards Board met in London on 22 September 2009 for an additional Board meeting, to continue work on the project to replace existing requirements for financial instruments. The Board continued its discussions on responses received to its previous exposure draft, published in July.

IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement has an exception that requires an entity to measure at cost investments in equity instruments that do not have a quoted market price and whose fair value cannot be reliably determined (as well as derivatives that are linked to such equity instruments and which must be settled by delivery of them). The exposure draft proposed to remove that exception and require that such investments be measured at fair value.

The Board tentatively decided to provide guidance for when entities can use a simplified current measurement for equity instruments if determining fair value is impracticable. In addition, the Board tentatively decided to amend IAS 34 Interim Financial Reporting to allow an entity to carry forward that measure if there is no evidence of a significant change in that measure since the last reporting date.

Impairment of financial instruments

The Board also continued its discussions on impairment of financial instruments. Regarding the drafting of an exposure draft (ED) on impairment the Board tentatively decided:

• that the ED should provide principle-based guidance regarding cash flow estimates on a collective (portfolio) and an individual basis (including the interplay between those bases) that focuses on two aspects:
1. using the approach that provides the best estimate; and
2. ensuring that if entities switch between approaches that does not result in double counting.
• that the ED includes concise application guidance for forecasting cash flows and the treatment of trade receivables.
• to use the Expert Advisory Panel (EAP) as a forum to explore further some other issues (determination of the initial expected spread, practical aspects of applying the effective interest method and interaction with Basel II requirements).
• that the ED clarifies aspects in relation to the measurement objective (point-in-time versus through-the-cycle-estimates, expected value versus most probable value and the use of entity specific versus market data).

Regarding transition proposals the Board tentatively decided not to propose either full retrospective or full prospective application. The Board asked the staff to explore further an alternative transition approach for financial instruments that were recognised before the date of transition. This approach would involve determining on transition a new effective interest rate on the basis of the expected cash flows over the remaining life of the financial instrument that would be subject to a floor (the risk free interest rate) and a ceiling (the contractual interest rate).

IASB Conceptual Framework Project:
Objectives and qualitative characteristics
http://bit.ly/b0XLH