National Standard-Setters (NSS) meeting in September

As part of the influencing role of the ASB and other standard setters, on 23 September ASB Chairman Ian Mackintosh chaired a meeting of National Standard-Setters (NSS) in London. Delegates from 15 countries plus EFRAG and the IASB attended. In addition, representatives of standard-setters from a number of other countries observed the meeting. The meeting was very successful and generated some good discussion on a range of topical issues, a number of which are reported on elsewhere in this edition of Inside Track, including the conceptual framework, a number of PAAinE projects and a paper discussing whether the IASB or IFRIC should be encouraged to develop guidance for entities operating in rate-regulated industries.

There was also a discussion on the future purpose and structure of the group, whose current aim is to facilitate research into accounting issues and to exchange ideas on that research. A small sub-committee of NSS members has been set up to develop proposals for discussion at the next meeting, scheduled to take place in March 2008.

IASB meeting with World Standard-Setters (WSS)

In September, the IASB held its annual 'set-piece' meeting with standard-setters from around the world, including the ASB. There was a wide-ranging agenda, including:

• a series of presentations from various counties of their experience of implementing IFRS or their plans to adopt (or in some cases adapt) IFRS;
• an update on the convergence of US GAAP and IFRS, where IASB Chairman David Tweedie and FASB Chairman Bob Herz were at pains to stress that the outcome of the 'roadmap' would be a close alignment of principles and generally comparable trends, but not identical standards; and
• a series of 'break-out' sessions on topical high-profile issues, such as fair value measurement.

IASB staff also outlined the four agenda proposals that are to be considered by the IASB in December, covering:

• Intangible assets – where the view is that the existing standard (IAS 38) 'is not very good' and that the project (if approved) is likely to 'move to a standard that recognises, to a greater degree, intangible assets in the balance sheet';
• Common control transactions - transactions between entities under common control are not currently addressed in IFRS and are specifically excluded from IFRS 3 (both current and the forthcoming revision). This has been a particular concern of some participants in the European Commission roundtable on consistent application of IFRS;
• Emission rights trading and government grants - IFRIC 3 'Emissions Rights' was issued in December 2004 but withdrawn in June 2005. Because emission rights are usually granted by a government, they are an example of a government grant. The project would also reconsider IAS 20; and
• Management commentary - the responses to the Discussion Paper published by the IASB in 2005 and prepared by ASB staff and those from other partner standard-setters have been very positive. The main issue is what type of document the IASB would develop: a standard; application guidance; or a best practice statement.

All the WSS material and agenda papers are available on the IASB's website www.iasb.org under 'Conferences Workshops and Presentations'.