ECA - Supplier Finance Arrangements
November 2023
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Introduction
Purpose
1The purpose of this Endorsement Criteria Assessment (ECA) is to determine whether Supplier Finance Arrangements (Amendments to IAS 7[^1] and IFRS 7[^2]) (the Amendments), issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in May 2023, meet the UK's statutory requirements for adoption as set out in Regulation 7 of Statutory Instrument 2019/685[^3] (SI 2019/685).
2The IASB's proposals were set out in Exposure Draft ED/2021/10 Supplier Finance Arrangements (Proposed amendments to IAS 7 and IFRS 7) (the ED)[^4]. The UKEB actively influenced the development of the Amendments, submitting its Final Comment Letter (FCL) on the ED to the IASB on 28 March 2022[^5].
Background to the Amendments
3The Amendments do not introduce changes to recognition, classification or measurement requirements in UK-adopted international accounting standards, but are intended to complement existing disclosure requirements that apply to supplier finance arrangements[^6]. The Amendments require entities to disclose additional information in the notes about such arrangements.
4The Amendments aim to provide users of financial statements with the information that enables them to assess the effect of supplier finance arrangements on an entity's liabilities and cash flows, as well as on the entity's exposure to liquidity risk.
5Section 2 in this ECA provides a brief description of the Amendments.
Scope of the adoption assessment
6The Amendments include an amendment to paragraph IG18 of the Guidance on Implementing IFRS 7 (which accompanies but is not part of that standard) and amendments to the Basis for Conclusions to IAS 7 and IFRS 7, which have not been included as part of the UKEB's assessment as UK-adopted international accounting standards comprise only the mandatory[^7] sections of standards. Nevertheless, we have read these amendments to paragraph IG18 and the Basis of Conclusions and have not identified any inconsistencies with the rest of the Amendments.
Structure of the assessment
7We have presented our analysis in the following sections:
a) Section 1: describes UK statutory requirements for adoption of new or amended international accounting standards; and b) Section 2: assesses whether the Amendments meet the criteria in Section 1.
Do the Amendments lead to a significant change in accounting practice?
8A standard adopted by the UKEB under Regulation 6 of SI 2019/685 that it considers is likely to lead to a "significant change in accounting practice", is subject to the requirements in paragraph 3 of Regulation 11 of SI 2019/685 that the UKEB:
"(a) carry out a review of the impact of the adoption of the standard; and (b) publish a report setting out the conclusions of the review no later than 5 years after the date on which the standard takes effect (being the first day of the first financial year in respect of which it must be used)".
9Section 2 of the ECA assesses whether the Amendments lead to a significant change in accounting practice and concludes that they do not.
1. Section 1: UK statutory requirements for adoption
UK statutory requirements
1.1Paragraph 1 of Regulation 7 of SI 2019/685 requires that an international accounting standard only be adopted if:
"(a) the standard[^8] is not contrary to either of the following principles- (i) an undertaking's accounts must give a true and fair view of the undertaking's assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss; (ii) consolidated accounts must give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss of the undertakings included in the accounts taken as a whole, so far as concerns members of the undertaking; (b) the use of the standard is likely to be conducive to the long term public good in the United Kingdom; and (c) the standard meets the criteria of understandability, relevance, reliability and comparability required of the financial information needed for making economic decisions and assessing the stewardship of management."
1.2This ECA assesses the criteria above in the following order:
a) Whether the Amendments meet the criteria of relevance, reliability, understandability and comparability required of the financial information needed for making economic decisions and assessing the stewardship of management (SI 2019/685 Regulation 7(1)(c)). b) Whether the Amendments are not contrary to the principle that an entity's accounts must give a true and fair view (SI 2019/685 Regulation 7(1)(a)).
Relevance, reliability, understandability and comparability[^9]
1.3Information is relevant if it is capable of making a difference in the decision-making of users[^10] or in their assessment of the stewardship of management. The information may aid predictions of the future, confirm or change evaluations of the past, or both.
1.4Financial information is reliable if, within the bounds of materiality, it:
a) can be depended on by users to represent faithfully what it either purports to represent or could reasonably be expected to represent; b) is complete; and c) is free from material error and bias.
1.5Financial information should be readily understandable by users with a reasonable knowledge of business and economic activities and accounting, and a willingness to study the information with reasonable diligence.
1.6Information is comparable if it enables users to identify and understand similarities in, and differences among, items. Information about an entity should be comparable with similar information about other entities and with similar information about the same entity for another period.
1.7In conducting our overall assessment against the technical accounting criteria we are required to adopt an absolute, rather than a relative, approach. Our assessment is therefore an absolute one against the criteria (do the Amendments provide information that is understandable, relevant, reliable and comparable?) rather than a relative one (do the Amendments provide information that is more understandable, relevant, reliable and comparable than current, or any other, accounting?). When an assessment of any individual aspect or requirement of the Amendments uses comparative language (e.g. 'enhances comparability'), this does not mean that our objective is to reflect a real comparison in relative terms. Instead, our objective is to explain that any individual aspect or requirement of the Amendments has the potential to “enhance” one or more of the qualitative characteristics. Consideration of whether the Amendments are likely to improve the quality of financial reporting is separate from this assessment and is included within the UK long term public good assessment in Section 2.
True and fair view assessment
1.8As noted above, the first adoption criterion set out in SI 2019/685 Regulation 7(1) requires that an international accounting standard can be adopted only if:
"[...] the standard is not contrary to either of the following principles - (i) an undertaking's accounts must give a true and fair view of the undertaking's assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss; (ii) consolidated accounts must give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss of the undertakings included in the accounts taken as a whole, so far as concerns members of the undertaking; [...]"
1.9For the sake of brevity, we refer to our assessment against this endorsement criterion as 'the true and fair view assessment' and to the principles set out in SI 2019/685 Regulation 7(1)(a) as the ‘true and fair view principle'. However, these abbreviated expressions do not imply that our assessment has considered anything other than the full terms of the endorsement criterion set out above.
1.10The duty of the UKEB under Regulation 7(1)(a) is to determine generically, before a standard is applied to a set of accounts, whether that standard is not contrary to the true and fair view principle. In other words, it is an ex-ante assessment. We have therefore considered whether the Amendments contain any requirement that would prevent accounts prepared using the Amendments from giving a true and fair view.
1.11Our approach is to determine whether the Amendments are not contrary to the true and fair view principle in respect of any of the specific items identified in SI 2019/685 Regulation 7(1)(a) (namely, the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss) in the context of the preparation of the accounts as a whole. A holistic approach has been taken to this assessment, considering the impact of the Amendments taken as a whole, including its interaction with other UK-adopted international accounting standards.
1.12For the purposes of our assessment, we consider the requirement in IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements for financial statements to "present fairly the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of an entity"[^11] to be equivalent to the Companies Act 2006 requirement for accounts to give a true and fair view.
1.13Our assessment is separate from the duty of directors under section 393(1) of the Companies Act 2006, which requires directors to be satisfied that a specific set of accounts gives a true and fair view of an undertaking's or group's assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss.
Adoption decision
1.14Section 2 of this ECA assesses whether the Amendments meet the statutory endorsement criteria set out in this Section.
1.15On the basis of this assessment, the UKEB concludes that the Amendments meet the statutory endorsement criteria. The UKEB is therefore of the view that it will adopt the Amendments for use in the UK.
2. Section 2: Description and assessment of the Amendments
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