The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published a comprehensive Discussion Paper set out the IASB’s preliminary views for more effective financial statements disclosure principles that should be included in a general disclosure standard or in non-mandatory guidance on the topic.
The IASB believes that by having clear principles governing what, how and where information should be disclosed in the financial statements will improve the information provided to users of financial statements. It will do so by helping companies communicate their disclosures more effectively and by assisting the IASB in improving disclosure requirements in IFRS Standards.
Some specific suggestions in the Discussion Paper Disclosure Initiative — Principles of Disclosure include:
- seven principles of effective communication, which could be included in a general disclosure standard or described in non-mandatory guidance
- possible approaches to improve disclosure objectives and requirements in IFRS Standards, and
- principles of fair presentation and disclosure of performance measures and non-IFRS information in financial statements, to ensure that such information is not misleading.
The Discussion Paper can be downloaded from the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) website.
Source: IFRS, 30 March 2017