Accounting Standards Advisory Forum Holds First Meeting

Members of the Accounting Standards Advisory Forum held their inaugural meeting in London on Monday and Tuesday and signed a joint memorandum of understanding under which the standard-setters from around the world will provide advice to the International Accounting Standards Board.

The meeting began with the IASB and members of the ASAF signing the agreement, which describes the purpose of the ASAF and its operating activities. The ASAF is seen as a way for the IASB to broaden the bilateral arrangement that it had with the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board during the decade-long convergence process and gain more input into accounting standards from other countries parts of the world that have made more of a commitment to International Financial Reporting Standards.

The main technical subjects discussed were the IASB’s Conceptual Framework and the impairment projects, on which the IASB and FASB still have some differences over the impairment rules for bank loans and credit losses.

“The ASAF provides an important opportunity for representatives of the global accounting standard-setting community to discuss in detail the ongoing technical work of the IASB,” said IASB chairman Hans Hoogervorst in a statement. “This was a very productive first meeting, with all parties working together in a highly collaborative manner.”

The meeting was webcast live and a recording of the webcast and corresponding meeting papers is available to download from the ASAF meetings page. Further details on the ASAF are available from the ASAF page.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Audit Accounting standards Financial reporting
MORE FROM ACCOUNTING TODAY