The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) this week has set out a detailed six-month timetable for publishing a proposal to replace its existing financial instruments standard, IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement. The IASB also announced the results of its 30-day accelerated consultation on the Staff Positions (FSPs) on fair value measurement and impairment published recently by the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).
The IASB's comprehensive project on financial instruments responds directly to and is consistent with the recommendations and timetable set out by the Group of 20 (G20) nations at their meeting earlier this month. They called for standard-setters 'to reduce the complexity of accounting standards for financial instruments' and to address issues arising from the financial crisis, such as loan-loss provisioning. The IASB will work jointly with the FASB to pursue the objective of a globally accepted replacement of the requirements on accounting for financial instruments.
At its meeting this week, the IASB reviewed the FASB FSPs on fair value measurement and impairment. The IASB considered comments received from its consultation on the FSPs and advice received from the Financial Crisis Advisory Group (FCAG), the Standards Advisory Council (SAC), participants at the three joint IASB-FASB public round tables held in November and December 2008, and other interested parties. The IASB concluded the following:
Fair value measurement: The guidance on fair value measurement issued by the FASB is consistent with existing guidance on IFRSs, contained in the IASB's Expert Advisory Panel report, Measuring and disclosing the fair value of financial instruments in markets that are no longer active. Therefore, a level playing field exists in this area. To ensure ongoing consistency in the application of IFRSs and US GAAP, the IASB will include relevant guidance from the FSP in the IASB's exposure draft on fair value measurement, which will be published in May.
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Impairment of financial assets: On the important question of impairment, the IASB agreed with the widespread view amongst commentators that the IASB should improve its impairment requirements. The IASB will take up the broad issue of impairment as part of its comprehensive and urgent review of IAS 39. The IASB believes that an immediate response to the recent FSP on impairment is unnecessary. The IASB will work with the FASB as part of its comprehensive project to ensure global consistency in impairment approaches.
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