IAS 9 (IAS 39 replacement project) delayed until 2015

At the IFRS Conference held in Zurich on 5th July 2011, IFRS staff member Sue Lloyd announced their recommendation to the IFRS board to delay IAS 9 adoption until 2015.This is yet to be formally confirmed by the IFRS Board.

A delay to the timetable is bound to be welcome news to banks who are struggling to understand and implement this far reaching accounting standard. However early adopters can still take advantage of improvements in the standard, particularly to hedge accounting – and if you adopt before January 2012 you will not need to retrospectively report under IAS 9 rules.

The next important date to watch is the final general hedge accounting standard in Q3 2011 and exposure draft for macro hedging, due to be published Q4 2011.