The Impact of IFRS on Industry

Chapter 2Summary of Disclosures Under IFRS Standards

To many, IFRS is all about disclosures. The insertion of the words “financial reporting” in place of “accounting” in the erstwhile International Accounting Standards was intended to send out a message that accounting is passé, financial reporting is in. Financial reporting in essence means disclosures. The disclosure requirements in IFRS are, to say the least, intense. Apart from the disclosure requirements mentioned in most Standards, IFRS has Standards exclusively for disclosures: IAS 24 Related Party Transactions, IFRS 7 Financial Instruments: Disclosures, IFRS 8 Operating Segments and IFRS 11 Disclosure of Interests in Other Entities are examples. However, it has to be mentioned that the disclosure requirements in other Standards are equally intense: IAS 36 requires extensive disclosures to be made when an asset tests positive for impairment. In stark contrast, the disclosure requirements required by IAS 23 Borrowing Costs are mentioned only in about four paragraphs. The mantra for an entity moving over to an IFRS world will be “just disclose it.”

A summary of the disclosure requirements in major IFRS Standards is provided here. A disclaimer has to be made here – the list is by no means exhaustive since some paragraphs in IFRS Standards draw references to other IFRS Standards. An entity doing IFRS for the first time would do well do develop a detailed checklist for disclosures. There are quite a few available online but ...