05/05/2017 - EFRAG's preliminary responses to the questions in the IASB’s DP-2017-1 Disclosure Initiative - Principles of Disclosure

​On 30 March 2017, the IASB issued the Discussion Paper DP/2017/1 Disclosure Initiative - Principles of Disclosure ('the IASB DP') with a comment period ending on 2 October 2017. 

The main objective of the IASB DP is to identify disclosure issues and develop new, or clarify existing, disclosure principles in IFRS Standards to address those issues and to:

• help entities to apply better judgement and communicate information more effectively;
• improve the effectiveness of disclosures for the primary users of financial statements; and
• assist the IASB to improve disclosure requirements in IFRS Standards.

The IASB DP, which is expected to lead to amendments to IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements or the development of a new general disclosure Standard, covers the following topics:

1. Overview of the ‘disclosure problem’ and the objective of this project;
2. Principles of effective communication;
3. Roles of the primary financial statements and the notes;
4. Location of information, which discusses:
• when an entity can provide information that is necessary to comply with IFRS Standards outside the financial statements; and
• when an entity can provide information that is identified as ‘non-IFRS information’ within the financial statements;
5. Use of performance measures in the financial statements;
6. Disclosure of accounting policies;
7. Centralised disclosure objectives; and
8. New Zealand Accounting Standards Board staff’s approach to drafting disclosure requirements in IFRS Standards.

In order to provide constituents with the maximum amount of time possible for considering the IASB DP, the EFRAG Board is undertaking a two-stage process in seeking the views of constituents.

This first stage consists of EFRAG's preliminary responses to the questions in the IASB DP. The positions expressed in this document have been prepared by the EFRAG Technical Expert Group and have been reviewed by the EFRAG Board as a basis for public consultation. The EFRAG Board will further deliberate a number of cross-cutting and strategic issues and will then issue a full draft comment letter. The full draft comment letter will supersede this consultation. It may amend some preliminary responses included herein and/or include additional questions to constituents. The EFRAG Board will continue its discussions at its next meeting on 31 May 2017.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: ​On 8 June 2017, EFRAG has published its draft comment letter in response to the IASB DP, which supersedes the preliminary consultation document. You can comment on EFRAG's draft comment letter by clicking here.