IFRS 2020 AND BEYOND

Effective for annual periods beginning on or after January 1, 2021:

IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts (New in 2017; replaces IFRS 4)

IFRS 17, together with IFRS 9, will result in a profound change to the accounting in IFRS financial statements for insurance companies. This will have a significant impact on data, systems and processes used to produce information for financial reporting purposes. The new model is likely to have a significant impact on the profit and total equity of some insurance entities, resulting in increased volatility compared to today’s models. Key performance indicators will also likely be affected.

Effective for annual periods beginning on or after January 1, 2020:

The Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting (Revised in 2018)

The revised Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting (the Conceptual Framework) is not a standard, and none of the concepts override those in any standard or any requirements in a standard. The purpose of the Conceptual Framework is to assist the Board in developing standards, to help preparers develop consistent accounting policies if there is no applicable standard in place and to assist all parties to understand and interpret the standards.

The changes to the Conceptual Framework may affect the application of IFRS in situations where no standard applies to a particular transaction or event.

Amendments to IFRS 3 Business Combinations re: Definition of a Business

The amendments clarify that to be considered a business, an integrated set of activities and assets must include, at a minimum, an input and a substantive process that together significantly contribute to the ability to create output. They also clarify that a business can exist without including all of the inputs and processes needed to create outputs. That is, the inputs and processes applied to those inputs must have ‘the ability to contribute to the creation of outputs’ rather than ‘the ability to create outputs’.

The amendments clarify that to be considered a business, an integrated set of activities and assets must include, at a minimum, an input and a substantive process that together significantly contribute to the ability to create output. They also clarify that a business can exist without including all of the inputs and processes needed to create outputs. That is, the inputs and processes applied to those inputs must have ‘the ability to contribute to the creation of outputs’ rather than ‘the ability to create outputs’.

Interest Rate Benchmark Reform (Amendments to IFRS 9, IAS 39 and IFRS 7)

The amendments in Interest Rate Benchmark Reform (Amendments to IFRS 9, IAS 39 and IFRS 7) clarify that entities would continue to apply certain hedge accounting requirements assuming that the interest rate benchmark on which the hedged cash flows and cash flows from the hedging instrument are based will not be altered as a result of interest rate benchmark reform.

Amendments to References to the Conceptual Framework in IFRS Standards

Together with the revised Conceptual Framework published in March 2018, the IASB also issued Amendments to References to the Conceptual Framework in IFRS Standards. The document contains amendments to IFRS 2, IFRS 3, IFRS 6, IFRS 14, IAS 1, IAS 8, IAS 34, IAS 37, IAS 38, IFRIC 12, IFRIC 19, IFRIC 20, IFRIC 22, and SIC-32. Not all amendments, however update those pronouncements with regard to references to and quotes from the framework so that they refer to the revised Conceptual Framework. Some pronouncements are only updated to indicate which version of the framework they are referencing to (the IASC framework adopted by the IASB in 2001, the IASB framework of 2010, or the new revised framework of 2018) or to indicate that definitions in the standard have not been updated with the new definitions developed in the revised Conceptual Framework.

Amendments to IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements and IAS 8 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors re: Definition of Material

IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements and IAS 8 to align the definition of ‘material’ across the standards and to clarify certain aspects of the definition. The new definition states that, ’Information is material if omitting, misstating or obscuring it could reasonably be expected to influence decisions that the primary users of general purpose financial statements make on the basis of those financial statements, which provide financial information about a specific reporting entity.’

The amendments clarify that materiality will depend on the nature or magnitude of information, or both. An entity will need to assess whether the information, either individually or in combination with other information, is material in the context of the financial statements.

Although the amendments to the definition of material is not expected to have a significant impact on an entity’s financial statements, the introduction of the term ‘obscuring information’ in the definition could potentially impact how materiality judgements are made in practice, by elevating the importance of how information is communicated and organised in the financial statements.