The Accounting Standards Board (ASB) has today issued a Financial Reporting Standard (FRS) of Improvements to Financial Reporting Standards so as to maintain the existing levels of convergence between UK and International Financial Reporting Standards.

The amendments arise as a consequence of the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) annual improvements process. In May 2008 the IASB issued an International Financial Reporting Standard, ‘Improvements to IFRSs’, which made amendments to a number of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The improvements to UK FRS are the same as those made to IFRS where the UK FRS is an IFRS-based standard.

Secondly, amendments have been made to update UK IFRS-based FRS where the IASB has made other amendments.

Thirdly, some minor editorial changes have been made to update UK FRS.

The amendments set out in the FRS are based on the ASB's Financial Reporting Exposure Draft Improvements to Financial Reporting Standards issued in June 2008.

1. The ASB is an operating body of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the UK’s independent regulator responsible for promoting confidence in corporate reporting and governance. Its functions are exercised principally by its operating bodies (the Accounting Standards Board, the Auditing Practices Board, the Board for Actuarial Standards, the Financial Reporting Review Panel, the Professional Oversight Board and the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board) and by the FRC Board. The Committee on Corporate Governance assists the Board in its work on corporate governance.
2. The main role of the ASB is to issue accounting standards. The ASB collaborates with accounting standard-setters from other countries and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) both in order to influence the development of international standards and in order to ensure that its standards are developed with due regard to international developments.
3. The ASB has eleven Board members, of whom two (the Chairman and the Technical Director) are full-time, and the remainder, who represent a variety of interests, are part-time.
4. Press enquiries should be directed to Ian Mackintosh (Chairman) on 020 7492 2434, David Loweth (Technical Director) on 020 7492 2420 or Michelle Crisp (Project Director) on 020 7492 2432.
5. The FRS is available free of charge on the ASB’s website at: http://www.frc.org.uk/asb/technical/projects/project0075.html. Hard copies are available, price £6.00 (post-free) from ASB Publications, 145 London Road, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, KT2 6SR (020 8247 1274). Web: www.frcpublications.com.