The International Accounting Standards Board decided not to extend the relief from restatement of comparative figures currently provided by IFRS 9, which allows an entity not to restate comparative figures if it decides to adopt the standard before 2012.The International Accounting Standards Board has proposed in its Exposure Draft Mandatory Effective Date of IFRS 9 to move the mandatory effective date of IFRS Financial Instruments to annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2015.

Earlier application would continue to be permitted. The ED does not address other specific transition issues for IFRS 9, including the prohibition against applying IFRS 9 to items that have already been de-recognized at the date of initial application, which the IASB had indicated it may reconsider. The ED does not discuss how the effective date of IFRS 9 should relate to the effective dates of other projects but confirms the importance of the timing of the insurance project (IFRS 4 Phase II) when setting an effective date.

The ED poses questions for public comment on the proposed date of 1 January 2015 and the IASB’s tentative decision not to change the current requirement in IFRS 9 on comparative figures. The comment period of the exposure draft closes on 21 October 2011.

The IASB has published an ED proposing to defer the mandatory effective date of IFRS 9 to annual periods beginning on or after 1January 2015, with earlier application permitted.  The comment period of the ED closes on 21 October 2011. The IASB recently extended its time line for IFRS 4 Phase II and has not yet set a publication date for the insurance standard.

The IASB recently extended its IFRS 4 Phase II timetable and now plans to make a decision on whether to re-expose or move to a review draft of the standard by the end of 2011, or during the course of 2012. It will set a publication date for a final IFRS 4 Phase II standard in due course. The deliberations on the insurance project are ongoing and the IASB has not yet made a decision on the effective date for the future IFRS 4 Phase II standard.