IA|BE IAS 19 Working Group Meeting

Minutes of the Meeting held on June, 21th, 2011

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Present:Diana Oliverio, Mireille Schellens, Jan Geerardyn, Tom Wouters, Régis Renard, Bernard Crohain, Stefaan Boom.

Excused: Nicole Regemortels, Trees Dierickx.

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  1. Régis gave an overview of the amended standard, released on June, 16th by the IASB. The main changes – in force as from FY 2013 - consist of:
  • eliminating an option to defer the recognition of gains and losses, known as the ‘corridor method’, targeting improvement of comparability and faithfulness of presentation.
  • suppression of the concept of expected return on assetsand explicit requirements to consider the tax on contribution effect on DBO.
  • streamlining the presentation of changes in assets and liabilities arising from defined benefit plans, including requiring remeasurements to be presented in other comprehensive income (OCI), thereby separating those changes from changes that many perceive to be the result of an entity’s day-to-day operations.
  • enhancing the disclosure requirements for defined benefit plans, providing better information about the characteristics of defined benefit plans and the risks that entities are exposed to through participation in those plans.
  • amending the treatment of Termination Benefits by excluding stay-bonuses from this category and distinguishing termination as a result of employer's or the employee's decision.

It is currently not clear whether the IASB (currently in a transition phase: members have to be replaced) intends to take Phase 2 of the revision on its agenda at short notice. In this case, entities would have to cope with a half-revised standard.

More specifically, from a Belgian viewpoint:

  • the accounting of DC plans would not be affected by the amendments because the IAS Board eventually decided to remove the modification of back-loaded plan rule that would have seriously affected them.
  • the tax impact on DBO may be significant.
  • we advise to pay special attention to the treatment of Employee contribution and Termination Benefits as well as to the impact of the suppression of the expected return on assets.

The latter 2 points will be further discussed during the next meeting. In the meantime, any ideas, thoughts about them can be collected by Régis.

  1. Régis has been asked by Marc Patigny to organise a IA|BE IAS 19 training. Two modules are planned.
  2. Basic training given by Anne Claes : 4 hrs, possibly in FR and in NL if justified by the number of trainees.
  3. Scope: basic presentation of concepts and techniques.
  4. Calendar : September-October 2011 at the Actuarial House
  5. Advanced training by Régis Renard : 4 hrs + 4hrs workshop.
  6. Scope:
  7. More advanced aspects
  8. Impact of amendments and relations with other IFRS.
  9. Calendar: October – November 2011 at the Actuarial House
  1. Next meeting will be organised in September

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IA|BE IAS 19 Working Group Meeting 21 June 2011Page 1 of 2