Adjusting to the operational challenges imposed by these exceptional times, the members of the European Association of Co-operative Banks (EACB) working groups on Accounting and Auditing convened virtually in a webconference on Thursday 26th March 2020. The working group held intensive discussions on the actions taken so far by regulatory bodies and further adjustments needed to try and ease the impact of the Covid19 crisis. Moreover, some ongoing consultations and topics were addressed.
In particular, the AAWG members discussed the need to address the issue of procyclicality caused by certain parts of IFRS 9. In addition, the relevant initiatives so far together with future steps were discussed.
Cooperative banks remain committed to support financing of the real economy and act as a stabiliser in times of crisis. To perform this role it is necessary that any future action should take into account the relevant accounting challenges at hand.
Further discussion were held concerning the ongoing work to answer the IASB consultation on Primary Financial Statements and the EC consultation on NFRD revision. Finally the future developments on IAS 32 (FICE) project were discussed together with any future action taken by EACB Secretariat on the topic. There was also some exchange of thoughts concerning the state of play of some other future relevant Accounting topics for the Members(IBOR, DRM, Goodwill and Impairment).’