In July 2005 the ASB issued three Financial Reporting Exposure Drafts (FREDs) as part of a package of draft UK accounting standards. The FRED’s reflected the output from phases I and II of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) project on Business Combinations. The three FREDs where:

• FRED 36 ‘Business Combinations’ (IFRS 3) and Amendments to FRS 2 ‘Accounting for Subsidiary Undertakings’ (parts of IAS 27 ‘Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements’).
• FRED 37 ‘Intangible Assets’ (IAS 38) and FRED 38 ‘Impairment of Assets’ (IAS 36).
• FRED 39 Amendments to FRS 12 ‘Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets’ and Amendments to FRS 17 ‘Retirement Benefits’.

The IASB completed phase II of its project and published a revised IFRS 3 ‘Business Combinations’ and an amended version of IAS 27 ‘Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements’ in January 2008.

The ASB, which had issued FRED 36 to FRED 39, as part of a wider programme of converging UK and Republic of Ireland Financial Reporting Standards with International Financial Reporting Standards in a phased manner, having received feedback from respondents to the FREDs decided not to develop the FRED 36 to FRED 38 further until it had consulted again on the future of UK and Republic of Ireland financial reporting.

The IASB is continuing its project on Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets. The ASB decided to continue to monitor the IASB project on Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets (click here for more information).