In its analysis of existing Management Commentary principles and requirements relating to narrative reporting, the paper noted many ‘common threads’.These emerged particularly strongly in three areas:
These three shared elements provided a sound basis for progress in this area, removing the need to start again from first principles.
IASB Management Commentary Discussion Paper - scope of review and key outputs
The project team focused its review on the guidance in place in the following countries:
- Canada - new updated guidance in May 2004
- Germany - new legislation in December 2004
- UK - new legislation in early 2005
- US - new guidance on the MD&A issued by the SEC in December 2003
- The Technical Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) guidance on MD&A issued in February 2003
The project team also reviewed guidance issued in Australia (including a new mandatory directors' report introduced from July 2004) and the EU Modernisation Directive, which, to a degree, drove the recent developments in Germany and the UK.
