FRSC Invites Comments on Proposed Consolidation Standard

The Financial Reporting Standards Council (FRSC) has issued an Invitation to Comment on Exposure Draft (ED) 10, Consolidated Financial Statements, issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

The IASB issued the proposals to strengthen and improve the requirements for identifying which entities a company controls.

The proposals form part of the IASB’s comprehensive review of off balance sheet activities and address an area cited by the G20 leaders at their November 15 meeting. The proposals also respond to the recommendations contained in a report published in April 2008 by the Financial Stability Forum (FSF).

The use of special structures by reporting entities, particularly banks, to manage securitizations and other more complex financial arrangements was highlighted by the FSF and the G20 as a matter of concern. Some commentators have questioned whether the current requirements lead to the right things being brought onto the balance sheet. They have been concerned that financial statements do not convey the extent to which reporting entities are exposed to risks from those types of structures.

The proposals address those concerns by presenting a new, principle-based, definition of control of an entity that would apply to a wide range of situations and be more difficult to evade by special structuring. The proposals also include enhanced disclosure requirements that would enable an investor to assess the extent to which a reporting entity has been involved in setting up special structures and the risks to which these special structures expose the entity. The proposals would apply not only to the banking sector but to any entity that uses legal entities to manage its activities.

The FRSC Invitation to Comment and the IASB exposure draft may be downloaded from the Philippine Financial Reporting Standards (PFRS) website, within the PICPA website at www.picpa.com.ph. The exposure draft may also be downloaded from the IASB website at www.iasb.org.

The FRSC invites comments on the exposure draft by March 6, 2009.