EFRAG's draft comment letter on the IASB's Discussion Paper DP/2017/1 Disclosure Initiative - Principles of Disclosure
On 30 March 2017, the IASB issued the Discussion Paper DP/2017/1 Disclosure Initiative - Principles of Disclosure ('the IASB DP') with a comment period ending on 2 October 2017.
The main objective of the IASB DP is to identify disclosure issues and develop new, or clarify existing, disclosure principles in IFRS Standards to address those issues and to:
- help entities to apply better judgement and communicate information more effectively;
- improve the effectiveness of disclosures for the primary users of financial statements; and
- assist the IASB to improve disclosure requirements in IFRS Standards.
The IASB DP is expected to lead to amendments to IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements or the development of a new general disclosure standard.
In order to provide constituents with the maximum amount of time possible for considering the IASB DP, the EFRAG Board undertook a two-stage process in seeking the views of constituents.
On 5 May EFRAG published preliminary responses to the questions in the IASB DP (the ‘preliminary consultation document’). The preliminary consultation document reflected the views of the EFRAG Technical Expert Group and was reviewed by the EFRAG Board as a basis for an initial public consultation.
The EFRAG Board has since further deliberated a number of cross-cutting and strategic issues and has considered whether, in its view, the IASB DP and the IASB’s overall Disclosure Initiative project portfolio are on track to address the disclosure problem.
The EFRAG Board is now issuing this draft comment letter, which supersedes the preliminary consultation document.
In summary, while reiterating support for the objectives of the IASB DP and the overall Disclosure Initiative project, EFRAG considers that the primary focus for the next phases of this project should be to tackle disclosure overload. Detailed responses to the questions contained in the IASB DP are included in the appendix to EFRAG's draft comment letter.
EFRAG requests comments by 11 September 2017. You can comment on EFRAG's draft comment letter by clicking on the 'Comment publication' link below.
The draft comment letter is available here.