EFRAG commented on IASB Exposure Draft Mandatory Effective Date of IFRS 9

09 September 2011

EFRAG issued its draft comment letter to the IASB on the Exposure Draft Mandatory Effective Date of IFRS 9. Comments on the letter are invited by 17 October 2011.

EFRAG welcomes the Board’s decision to postpone the effective date of IFRS 9 'Financial Instruments', but considers that the revised effective date of 1 January 2015 provides insufficient relief because:

• significant parts of IFRS 9 (e.g. impairment, general hedging and macro hedging) remain to be completed; and
• the standard on insurance contracts remains to be completed.

This means that until the above-mentioned standards are completed, it is not possible for an entity to make informed decisions about its accounting policies, classification of financial instruments and hedge designation.

EFRAG believes that, rather than setting a fixed effective date, it would be more appropriate to allow entities at least three years, from the date on which both the last phase of IFRS 9 and the new standard on insurance contracts have been published, to implement IFRS 9.

Press release

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