Welcome to this week’s Technical Roundup.
In developments this week, the European Central Bank recently issued its staff opinion on the first set of European Sustainability Reporting Standards; the Institute is hosting a webinar on Options for directors in financial difficulty on Thursday, 9 February 2023. We will outline directors’ duties and obligations when a business is in financial difficulty, and possible consequences for directors for not adhering to those duties and obligations.
Read more on these and other developments that may be of interest to members below.
Financial Reporting
The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has published its Draft Comment Letter in response to the IASB's Exposure Draft 2023/1 International Tax Reform - Pillar Two Model Rules (Proposed Amendments to IAS 12). Comments are requested by EFRAG by 27 February 2023.
The UK Endorsement Board is holding a roundtable in relation to the above Exposure Draft. This will take place on 13 January.
EFRAG has completed its due process regarding Lease liability in a Sale and Leaseback (Amendments to IFRS 16) and has submitted its Endorsement Advice Letter to the European Commission.
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has published its January 2023 update and updated work plan.
The IASB has issued an “In Brief” article to explain two decisions that have been made in the Business Combinations – Disclosures, Goodwill and Impairment project.
The IFRS Foundation has issued its January 2023 update and the IASB has also issued its January 2023 podcast.
Auditing
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has updated its Statement of Intent on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting. This was first published in 2021, and identified underlying issues with the production, audit and assurance, distribution, consumption, supervision and regulation of ESG information. Since then, it has undertaken a significant number of initiatives both in the UK and internationally, to assist and support its wide range of stakeholders and drive best practice in high-quality and comparable ESG reporting and disclosure.
Sustainability
The Irish Dept of Enterprise Trade and Employment has issued a public consultation seeking the views of interested parties on the member state options in the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“Directive”). More details can be found here and you can access the consultation here. Even though it is not consulting on direct effect/mandatory provisions, comments and questions on all aspects of the Directive are invited to facilitate the Dept’s work in transposition. The consultation is open until 5 pm Thu 9 March 2023.
Click here for a recent Institute news item with some more information on the Directive.
Readers may also be interested in accessing the speakers’ PowerPoint slides from a recent DETE webinar on the Directive to get further information on the various presentations made. There was a presentation from DETE, PWC and EFRAG on the Directive (the CSRD Directive) and a presentation by DETE on a Proposal for a Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence.
The European Central Bank recently issued its staff opinion on the first set of European Sustainability Reporting Standards. You can read more on it by following the above link.
Insolvency
The Institute is hosting a webinar on Options for directors in financial difficulty on Thursday, 9 February 2023. We will outline directors’ duties and obligations when a business is in financial difficulty, and possible consequences for directors for not adhering to those duties and obligations. There will be discussion on the recent insolvency related changes to Companies Act 2014 on the expansion of directors’ duties.
Anti-money laundering
FATF recently issued its Annual Report 2021-2022. It sets out FATF achievements for the year including a strengthened standard on beneficial ownership: to prevent criminals from laundering dirty money through shell companies and other legal persons. A report and webinar on migrant smuggling that set out the most common methods used to transfer and launder the proceeds of migrant smuggling and new and updated guidance in a report that aims to help real estate sector professionals. You can read more and download the FATF Annual Report 2021-2022 here .
The NCA in the UK has recently issued some new publications on SARs including guides on the new SAR Portal Overview, the new SAR Portal FAQs and new SAR Portal- how to register. Please click here to go to the NCA Money laundering and illicit finance webpage where you will find links to the guides (on the right of the page).
Other Areas of Interest
The Irish Charities Regulator recently published new guidance entitled guidance for charities on crisis management, guidance for small charities and guidance document – Credit Card Controls for Charities. It also has a range of other guidance on its website which readers may find useful.
The Corporate Enforcement Authority’s Director of Governance & Support Operations, Sharon Sterritt, will be speaking on the topic of 'The Role of the Forensic Accountant in Criminal Investigations' at the La Touche Training Regulatory Investigations conference on 9-10 March 2023. Further details are available at here.
The Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission recently participated in EU-wide sweep of websites to identify “dark patterns” which are practices aimed at pushing consumers into making choices online that may not be in their best interest. Examples are fake countdown timers; web interfaces designed to lead consumers to purchases, subscriptions or other choices; and hidden information. Sweeps included websites of mainly EU-based traders selling clothing; electronic goods and household equipment; cosmetics and personal care goods and food. The CCPC inspected the Irish websites of 16 well-known high street retailers. It said that in an Irish context, from the select number of Irish traders reviewed, no clear infringements were identified. You can read more on the CCPC website here and the European Commission press corner here.
Did you know that businesses have rights when engaging with online platforms? EU Regulation 2019/1150 (the ‘P2B Regulation’) aims to provide a fair, transparent and predictable business environment for businesses who use online platforms to offer their goods or services to consumers. You can read more about the P2B Regulation here. The CCPC recently engaged with businesses who use online platforms to sell their products and services to consumers. It found that many businesses have experienced difficulties. The most common issues were a difficulty lodging a complaint with the platform, and difficulty resolving a complaint through the platform’s complaint-handling system. You can read more about the engagement process and results here.
For further technical information and updates please visit the Technical Hub on the Institute website.
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