The Accounting Standards Board (ASB) has today issued; Financial Reporting Standard (FRS); ‘Improvements to Financial Reporting Standards 2009’ 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 April 2009 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.

In addition the ASB has amended FRS 11 ‘Impairment of Fixed Assets and Goodwill’ to strengthen the disclosure requirements in the FRS. The amendments are similar in nature to those made by the IASB to IAS 36 ‘Impairment of Assets’ as part of its ‘Improvements to IFRS’ issued in 2008.

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 2009.

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 ASB, the Auditing Practices Board, the Board for Actuarial Standards, the Financial Reporting Review Panel, the Professional Oversight Board and the Accountancy Discipline and Investigation Board) and by the Committee on Corporate Governance.
2. The prime role of the ASB is to maintain UK accounting standards. The ASB also 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 up to 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 Sansom (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 FRC Publications, 145 London Road, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, KT2 6SR (020 8247 1264). Web: www.frcpublications.com.