We Wanted IFRS Insights—So We Went Straight To The Source

Reserved, technical, conservative... is generally what comes to mind when picturing the writer of an accounting standard. That was the image our IFRS team took to Frankfurt, to the annual IFRS conference hosted by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Our plan was to corner one IASB board member in particular for insights—Mary Tokar, who literally helps write IFRS standards (and who, incidentally, worked as a partner within the KPMG network for several years).

Mary's CV is impressive: six-year member of the IFRS Interpretations Committee; KPMG global leader for employee benefit and share-based payment accounting; lead SEC representative for international accounting issues; IASB member since 2013 (now in her second term in 2017).

Luck, it seemed, was with us: Mary, walking our way after the first session, saw that we were from KPMG and struck up a conversation with us (finally, a reason to be grateful for those awkward conference name badges!) Far from the dry accounting standard writer we had imagined, Mary was outgoing, friendly, and held our attention effortlessly. And the best part? She agreed to an interview!

IFRS 9, 15, and 16

We were especially interested in hearing what she had to say about new standard implementation, given the continued focus on the IFRS 9, 15, and 16. On this topic, the challenge for the IASB has been timing: issuing three major new standards with effective dates all within a year is no easy feat. Apparently, more than the drafting, it's getting the buy-in of the board that poses the challenge—all requirements have to be agreed upon and comments on public discussion papers considered. Mary explained that back-and-forth considerations are the most time-consuming: you work to balance the views of every major stakeholder, but at some point you just need to yell STOP! and publish the draft version, or else the process will never stop.

For each new standard, the IASB sets up a Transition Resource Group (TRG), which provides support during the implementation phase by discussing stakeholder questions on the new requirements and reporting any critical implementation issues encountered. In this process, the IASB's final aim is actually twofold: to assist users by providing more guidance on the standards and to identify areas in the standard that require clarification.

The future of communication

Recently, the IASB published a discussion paper on the treatment of equity instruments under IFRS 9, providing...