MINUTES

MINUTES
MEETING:
ICAEW Financial Reporting Committee
DATE:
16 July 2015
LOCATION:
Board room, Chartered Accountants’ Hall
CHAIRMAN:
Kathryn Cearns
SECRETARY:
Nigel Sleigh-Johnson
ATTENDEES:
Alex Brougham, Peter Hogarth, Liz Murrall, Lynn Pearcy, Ken Rigelsford,
Sondra Tarshis; Observer, Pamela Taylor -100 Group
STAFF:
Phedra Diomidous, Sarah Dunn, Marianne Mau, Brian Singleton-Green, Eddy
James
GUESTS:
Richard Carter & Marie-Anne Mackenzie - BIS, Steve Hubbard - KPMG
APOLOGIES:
Phil Barden, Matt Blake, Martin Cavey, Jo Clube, Jake Green, Rajan Kapoor,
Chris Nobes, Trevor Pitman, Danielle Stewart
ITEM
DETAILS
1
Apologies
Apologies were noted from members unable to attend the meeting.
2
Minutes
The draft minutes of the meeting held on 17 June 2015 were approved.
3
FRC Membership
Steve Hubbard of KPMG was welcomed to the meeting.
4
Guests
Richard Carter and Marie-Anne Mackenzie of the Department for Business, Innovation
and Skills were welcomed to the meeting.
Richard Carter commented on the new political situation and government priorities,
including deregulation, and highlighted the lack of legislative proposals from the new
European Commission and the continued focus on the representation of women on
corporate boards.
Issues raised by members included likely future areas for deregulation (including the use
of paper based reporting), the implementation of the new narrative reporting
requirements, how to drive improvement in the ‘front end’ of annual accounts, the
updating of the LLP regulations, the equivalence of Japanese and US GAAP, tweaks to
company law on goodwill, the gender pay gap proposals and directors’ remuneration
legislation.
MATTERS FOR CONSIDERATION AND DRAFT REPRESENTATIONS
5
Representations - Key Issues
FRC, DP Improving the Quality of Reporting by Smaller Listed and AIM Quoted
Companies
The key issues identified to date were highlighted by Sarah Dunn and Lynn Pearcy and
discussed by the Committee.
IASB, ED/2015/3 Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting
The current process was summarised by the Chairman.
6
New Consultations
EC, Public consultation on further corporate tax transparency
Nigel Sleigh-Johnson explained the background and current ICAEW views, and referred
to recent related developments regarding the Shareholder Rights Directive.
It was agreed that draft comments on the financial reporting aspects would be prepared
and the draft ICAEW response circulated in due course.
IASB, ED/2015/5 Remeasurement on a Plan Amendment, Curtailment or
Settlement/Availability of a Refund from a Defined Benefit Plan
Lynn Pearcy introduced the proposals. It was agreed ICAEW should respond and
volunteers would be invited to participate.
IFRS Foundation, Request for Views, Trustees’ Review of Structure and
Effectiveness: Issues for the Review
It was noted that a roundtable might be arranged to discuss views on the proposals.
7
Projects, Presentations and Policy
Favourable feedback on the recent lessons learned report was noted, along with details
of the 15 September event with the IFRS Foundation.
It was noted that Ian Mackintosh was due to attend the September meeting of FRC.
8
Other Current Financial Reporting Developments
EU developments were discussed. The criticism of the EU endorsement mechanism at
2
the conference in Riga and the position regarding IFRS 9 endorsement were noted.
The completion of the IASB’s post-implementation review of IFRS 3 Business
Combinations was referred to. The results were considered to be uncontroversial.
The gender pay gap issue was mentioned. It was agreed that the main issue for the
Committee would probably be in the location of any new disclosures.
The publication of the new UK GAAP standards was noted, including a reference to RMC
accounting. It was suggested that, given the FRC comments about diversity in practice
and cost: benefit, it would not be appropriate for ICAEW to comment further on that issue.
MATTERS TO NOTE
9
FRC Meeting Arrangements
No other changes in FRC meeting arrangements were reported.
OTHER MATTERS
10
TAC and other ICAEW Groups
No relevant issues or concerns raised by Practice Committee, TAC and other ICAEW
groups were raised.
11
Any Other Business
There was no other business.
12
Future Meetings
It was noted that the next meeting was scheduled to take place at 14.30 on 16
September 2015 in the Boardroom.
3