IFRS Foundation

IFRS Foundation
Purpose/focus	Development and promotion of accounting standards[1]
Headquarters	London,  UK
Executive Director	Yael Almog[2]
Website	www.ifrs.org
Former name	IASC Foundation

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The International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation, or IFRS Foundation, is a nonprofit accounting organization. Its main objectives include the development and promotion of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) through the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), which it oversees.^[1][3]

The foundation was formerly named the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) Foundation until a renaming on 1 July 2010, and as of 2012 is governed by a board of 22 trustees.^[4]

Activities

Standard-setting

The IFRS Foundation sets out the IFRSs and their interpretations, which include the following:

• the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs);
• the International Accounting Standards (IASs);
• the International Financial Reporting Standards Interpretations (IFRICs); and
• the Standing Interpretation Committee interpretations (SICs).

Of these, the IASs and SICs are previously-developed standards and interpretations that have been adopted by the IASB and IFRS Interpretations Committee respectively.^[5] The IFRSs are developed and published by the IASB, the 15-member standard-setting body of the IFRS Foundation, while the IFRICs are provided by the IFRS Interpretations Committee.^[1]

Via the IASB, the IFRS Foundation also sets out the IFRS for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) to better meet the needs of SMEs and relieve the burden imposed on them by the full IFRSs.^[6] At a 2012 panel discussion co-sponsored by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, Sir David Tweedie said that the IFRS for SMEs "has been a howling success" and that 70 million businesses are using it globally, although other panelists expressed doubts about its ability to solve problems in certain areas.^[7]

IFRS Taxonomy

The IFRS Foundation also develops and maintains the IFRS Taxonomy, which is the representation of the IFRSs in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), via its XBRL team. The team is supported by the XBRL Advisory Council and the XBRL Quality Review Team, which respectively provide strategic advice and reviews developed taxonomies.^[8] Additionally, in 2012 the foundation issued a call for industry participants in a project to develop "common industry practice concepts" for the taxonomy.^[9]

XBRL provides a "common, electronic format for business and financial reporting",^[10] which will contribute to the global convergence of accounting standards towards IFRS;^[11] the director of XBRL activities at the IFRS Foundation, Olivier Servais, hopes that "everybody will be using it" in future.^[12] As of March 2012, the IFRS Taxonomies have "considerably fewer" tags than GAAP taxonomies, and the Security and Exchange Commission has not approved the IFRS Taxonomy for use in XBRL filings in the United States.^[13]

Organization and governance

The IFRS Foundation's executive director is Yael Almog,^[2] who is also the Director of the Department of International Affairs of the Israel Securities Authority,^[14] and is funded in part by country-specific funding regimes involving stakeholder groups, or levies and other contributions through regulatory authorities.^[15]

The foundation is governed by a board of 22 trustees,^[4] including

• Michel Prada (chairman), also co-Chairman of the Council on Global Financial Regulation;^[16]
• Tsuguoki Fujinuma (vice-chairman), also Professor at Chuo University and Board member of the Tokyo Stock Exchange Group Inc.;^[17]
• Robert Glauber (vice-chairman), former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority;^[18] and
• Ronald Arculli, also chairman of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, and the World Federation of Exchanges.^[19]

The trustees' responsibilities include appointing members to and establishing the operating procedures of the IASB, interpretations committee and advisory council, and approving the foundation's budget. They are accountable to a monitoring board of public authorities, and their effectiveness is assessed by the Trustees’ Due Process Oversight Committee.^[20]

References

External links

• Official website