IFRS Accounting Standards

New standard – Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements

The IASB issued IFRS 18, Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements that has reshaped financial reporting and replaces IAS 1, Presentation of Financial Statements. This new Standard sets out the overall requirements for presentation and disclosures in the financial statements and introduced new requirements such as three new defined categories and two new subtotals in the Statement of Profit and Loss and the disclosure of management-defined performance measures. It also enhanced aggregation and disaggregation requirements in the financial statements.

Effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2027, with early application permitted.

Revised standard – Lack of Exchangeability

The IASB issued amendments to IAS 21, The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates to clarify how an entity should assess whether a currency is exchangeable and how it should determine a spot exchange rate when exchangeability is lacking. A currency is exchangeable when the company is able to obtain the other currency within a time frame that allows for a normal administrative delay and through a market or exchange mechanism in which an exchange transaction would create enforceable rights and obligations. When the currency is not exchangeable, the company is required to estimate the spot exchange rate that reflects the rate at which an orderly exchange transaction would take place at the measurement date between market participants under prevailing economic conditions. Additional information will be required to be disclosed to enable users to evaluate how a currency’s lack of exchangeability affects, or is expected to affect its financial performance, financial position, and cash flows. The amendments respond to stakeholder feedback and concerns about diversity in practice in accounting for a lack of exchangeability between currencies.

Effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025, with early application permitted.

Revised standards – Supplier Finance Arrangements

The IASB issued amendments to IAS 7, Statement of Cash Flows and IFRS 7, Financial Instruments: Disclosures. The amendments require qualitative and quantitative information to be provided about supplier finance arrangements. Typically, a supplier finance arrangement involves one or more finance providers offering to pay amounts that a company owes to its suppliers and the company agreeing to pay those finance providers with the same or different term than the original term with the suppliers.

The amendments supplement the current requirements in the IFRS standards that apply to reverse factoring and similar arrangements and enhances transparency to assist users in understanding the effects of these arrangements on a company’s liabilities, cash flows, liquidity risk and risk management.

Amendments to IAS 7 are effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2024, with early application permitted. The amendments to IFRS 7 are effective when the amendments to IAS 7 are applied by the company.

Revised standard – Presentation of financial statements: non-current liabilities with covenants

The IASB issued narrow-scope amendments to IAS 1 to clarify that covenants to be complied with after the reporting date of the company do not affect the classification of a liability as current or non-current at the reporting date. Only covenants with which an entity is required to comply on or before the reporting date affect the classification of a liability as current or non-current. In addition, the amendments clarify that a company has to disclose information in the notes that enables users of financial statements to understand the risk that non-current liabilities with covenants could become repayable within twelve months.

Effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2024, with early application permitted.

Revised standard – Leases: lease liability in a sale and leaseback

The IASB issued narrow-scope amendments to IFRS 16 to clarify how a seller-lessee subsequently measures a sale and leaseback transaction that satisfies the requirements in IFRS 15 to be accounted for as a sale. A seller-lessee is required to subsequently measure lease liabilities arising from a leaseback in a way that it does not recognize any amount of the gain or loss that relates to the right of use it retains. The new requirements do not prevent a seller-lessee from recognizing in profit or loss any gain or loss relating to the partial or full termination of a lease.

Effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2024, with early application permitted.

Exposure draft – Business Combinations – Disclosures, Goodwill and Impairment

The IASB issued an exposure draft proposing to amend IFRS 3, Business Combinations and IAS 36, Impairment of Assets to:

• require companies to report the objectives and related performance targets of strategic acquisitions, including whether these are met in subsequent years;
• require companies to provide information about the expected synergies for all material acquisitions; and
• include targeted changes to the current impairment test in IAS 36 that would improve the effectiveness of the impairment test and reduce the cost and complexity of applying the test.

Comments are requested by July 15, 2024.

Exposure draft – Financial instruments with characteristics of equity

The IASB issued an exposure draft proposing to amend IAS 32, IFRS 7 and IAS 1 to:

• provide additional clarity on how to distinguish debt instruments from equity instruments;
• require companies to disclose information to further explain the complexities of those instruments; and
• require separate presentation for amounts, including profit and total comprehensive income, attributable to ordinary shareholders from amounts attributable to other holders of equity instruments.

The comment period is closed.

Exposure draft – Annual Improvements to IFRS Accounting Standards – Volume 11

The IASB issued an exposure draft proposing amendments to the following five standards and accompanying guidance:

• IFRS 1, First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards to address an inconsistency related to hedge accounting between IFRS 1 and IFRS 9, Financial Instruments;
• IFRS 7, Financial Instruments: Disclosures to address potential confusion or inconsistencies related to gain or loss on derecognition;
• Guidance on implementing IFRS 7 related to introduction, disclosure of deferred difference between fair value and transaction price and credit risk disclosures;
• IFRS 9, Financial Instruments to address a potential lack of clarity related to lessee derecognition of lease liabilities and a potential confusion related to the meaning of the term ‘transaction price’;
• IFRS 10, Consolidated Financial Statements to address a potential confusion related to the determination of a “de facto agent’; and
• IAS 7, Statement of Cash Flows to address a potential confusion arising from the use of the term ‘cost method’.

The comment period is closed. The IASB expects to publish the final amendments in July 2024.

Request for information – Post-implementation Review of IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers

The IASB issued a request for information asking for feedback on its post-implementation review of IFRS 15. IFRS 15 introduced a comprehensive and robust framework for the recognition, measurement and disclosure of revenue that applies to a wide range of transactions and industries and the IASB is assessing whether the requirements in the standard are working as intended.

The comment period is closed. The IASB expects to issue the feedback statement in Q3 2024.

Request for information – Post-implementation Review of IFRS 9 Financial Instruments – Impairment

The IASB issued a request for information asking for feedback on its post-implementation review of the expected credit loss requirements in IFRS 9. The ‘expected credit loss’ model in IFRS 9 provides for more timely recognition of loan losses and a forward-looking impairment model. The ‘expected credit loss’ model replaced the previous ‘incurred credit loss’ model, which only allowed credit losses to be recognized when a loss event occurred.

The comment period is closed. The IASB expects to issue the project summary in Q3 2024.

Exposure draft – Amendments to the Classification and Measurement of Financial Instruments

The IASB issued an exposure draft proposing to amend IFRS 9 and IFRS 7 to address matters identified during the post-implementation review of the classification and measurement requirements of IFRS 9. The proposed amendments:

• clarify the classification of financial assets with environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) and similar features, including how contractual cash flows on loans with ESG-linked features should be assessed; and
• clarify how to account for the settlement of financial liabilities using electronic payment systems and provides an accounting policy option to allow a company to derecognize a financial liability before it delivers cash on the settlement date when specified criteria are met.

The Exposure Draft also proposes amendments or additions to the disclosure requirements for:

• investments in equity instruments designated at fair value through other comprehensive income; and
• financial instruments with contractual terms that could change the timing or amount of contractual cash flows based on the occurrence (or non‑occurrence) of a contingent event.

This comment period is closed. The IASB expects to publish the final amendments in May 2024 .

Exposure draft – Subsidiaries Without Public Accountability: Disclosures

The IASB issued an exposure draft proposing a reduced disclosure IFRS standard that would apply on a voluntary basis to subsidiaries that:

• do not have public accountability
• have an ultimate or any intermediate parent that produces consolidated financial statements applying IFRS Standards

The intent is to reduce costs for eligible subsidiaries with reduced disclosure requirements while meeting the information needs of users of the financial statements.

The comment period is closed. The IASB expects to publish the new Standard in May 2024.

New project – Climate-related and Other Uncertainties in the Financial Statements

The IASB approved a new project in March 2023 aimed at exploring ways for entities to provide better information about climate-related risks in their financial statements. In September 2023, after researching the nature and causes of concern related to the reporting in the financial statements on the effects of climate-related risks, the IASB decided to respond to stakeholder concerns by:

• exploring the development of educational materials and articles
• consulting on some matters with the IFRS Interpretations Committee
• exploring possible illustrative examples and
• exploring possible narrow-scope standard-setting in relation to disclosures about estimates.

This project complements the work of the ISSB, connecting the two sets of requirements for general purpose financial reporting The IASB will consider the work of the ISSB to the extent that it applies to the financial statements. The IASB expects to decide on the project direction in April 2024.

Additional non-authoritative guidance

To stay ahead of the curve, find additional non-authoritative guidance to help you navigate the application of IFRS Accounting Standards.

• Summary of IASB’s project on Business Combinations under Common Control (IASB, 2024)
• Summary of national accounting standard-setters’ research on materiality judgment guidance (IFRS Foundation, 2024)
• Summary of IASB's project on extractive activities (IASB, 2023)
• IFRS Interpretations Committee Agenda Decisions – May 2023 to October 2023 (IFRS Foundation, 2023)
• IFRS Interpretations Committee Agenda Decisions – November 2022 to April 2023 (IFRS Foundation, 2023)
• IFRS Interpretations Committee Agenda Decisions (AcSB,2023)
• IFRS Accounting Standards Discussion Group – searchable past meeting topics (AcSB, 2023)
• UK Financial Reporting Council review findings on IFRS 13 Fair value measurement (FRC, 2023)
• IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements – Additional disclosure considerations for companies engaging in crypto-asset activities (AcSB, 2022)
• Summary Resource Guide – IFRS Viewpoints series (Mining, Oil and Gas) (CPA Canada, 2022)
• Framework for Reporting Performance Measures – voluntary guidance for enhanced decision making (AcSB, 2021)

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