UK-Adopted International Accounting StandardsAdoption Status Report
UK-Adopted International Accounting StandardsAdoption Status Report

Amendments to the Classification and Measurement of Financial Instruments

This page provides information on the UKEB project to respond to the IASB’s project Amendments to the Classification and Measurement of Financial Instruments.

Timeline 

The IASB is expected to publish an exposure draft in Q1 2023.

The UKEB plans to create a Project Initiation Plan and commence outreach aligned to the IASB timeline.  In the meantime, the UKEB continues to monitor developments on this topic.

Scope

In May 2022 the IASB decided to start a standard setting project Contractual Cash flow Characteristics of Financial Assets (Amendments to IFRS 9 Financial Instruments) to clarify particular aspects of the IFRS 9 requirements for assessing a financial asset’s contractual cash flow characteristics (i.e., the ‘solely payments of principal and interest’ or SPPI requirements).

The IASB’s decision was taken in response to feedback received on the Request for Information Post-implementation Review of IFRS 9 - Classification and Measurement (see background section below). 

In October 2022, the IASB decided to expand the scope of its proposed narrow-scope amendments to IFRS 9. The project was renamed Amendments to the Classification and Measurement of Financial Instruments and its scope considers the following three areas:

  • Contractual cash flow characteristics - clarification of the requirements in IFRS 9 to assess whether a financial asset’s contractual cash flows are SPPI and new requirements in IFRS 7 Financial Instruments: Disclosures to disclose information about the variability in contractual cash flows for financial assets and financial liabilities not measured at fair value through profit or loss.
  • Electronic cash transfers - proposed amendments to the derecognition requirements in IFRS 9 to permit an accounting policy choice to allow an entity to derecognise a financial liability before it delivers cash on the settlement date when specified criteria are met.
  • Equity instruments and other comprehensive income (OCI) - proposed amendments to IFRS 7 would require disclosure of the aggregated fair value of equity investments for which the OCI presentation option is applied at the end of the reporting period; and changes in fair value recognised in other comprehensive income during the period.

Background – The Post-implementation Review of IFRS 9

IFRS 9 Financial Instruments sets out the requirements on how an entity classifies and measures financial assets, financial liabilities and some contracts to buy or sell non-financial items. The standard was effective for annual periods commencing on or after 1 January 2018. Insurers may defer the effective date until 1 January 2023, if certain conditions are met.

Under its due process the IASB is required to conduct a post-implementation review [1] of all new IFRS standards and major amendments. The objective of a post-implementation review is to assess whether the effects of applying the new requirements on users of financial statements, preparers, auditors and regulators are as intended when the IASB developed those new requirements. 

The IASB divided its overall post-implementation review of IFRS 9 into three phases:

  1. Classification and Measurement - The IASB published its Request for Information Post-implementation Review of IFRS 9 - Classification and Measurement in September 2021.
  2. Impairment - The IASB plans to publish a request for information on its post-implementation review of the IFRS 9 impairment requirements during Q2 2023.
  3. Hedge Accounting - A post-implementation review addressing IFRS 9 hedge accounting is expected at a future date.

The IASB post-implementation review of IFRS 9 also considers the related disclosure requirements in              IFRS 7 Financial Instruments: Disclosures, in each phase of the project.

UKEB’s planned outreach

The UKEB project outreach will include discussions with stakeholders and public consultation on a draft UKEB comment letter in response to the IASB’s exposure draft.

We would like to hear the perspectives of UK stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds, including users, preparers, academics, auditors and regulators.

More detailed information on outreach activities will be published in due course. If you have been following the IASB discussions on the potential amendments to IFRS 9 and IFRS 7 and want to share your views before an exposure draft is published, you can contact us at any time using the details at the end of this page.

For further updates on UKEB projects you can subscribe to our newsletters and alerts by emailing contact@endorsement-board.uk and putting SUBSCRIBE in the Subject.

[1] For further information on the IASB post-implementation reviews refer to the IFRS website here.