The Accounting Standards Board (ASB) is delighted with the volume and quality of responses it has received to the discussion paper ‘The Financial Reporting of Pensions’.

The paper was issued in January 2008 with the aim of stimulating debate and influencing international opinion on the reporting of pensions. The paper was published under the Pro-active Accounting Activities in Europe (PAAinE) initiative by the ASB, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) and a number of other European standard-setters. In developing the paper, the ASB was assisted by its Pensions Advisory Panel and a PAAinE working group.

To date over 90 responses have been received. The ASB is delighted with this level of response and considers the paper has achieved its first objective of stimulating debate.

The ASB will now spend some time considering the responses. It will also discuss the matters raised in the responses with interested parties. Redeliberation of the proposals set out in the discussion paper are expected to commence in September 2008.

A report setting out final recommendations for consideration by the IASB and FASB is not anticipated until the second half of 2009.

The ASB Chairman Ian Mackintosh said:

“The responses contain a variety of points of view and will be a wonderful basis for redeliberating the original paper. We now need to consider the responses carefully to ensure the aim to develop sound proposals for the international community is fulfilled”.

1. The ASB is an operating body of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the UK’s independent regulator responsible for promoting confidence in corporate reporting and governance. Its functions are exercised principally by its operating bodies (the Accounting Standards Board, the Auditing Practices Board, the Board for Actuarial Standards, the Financial Reporting Review Panel, the Professional Oversight Board and the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board) and by the FRC Board. The Committee on Corporate Governance assists the Board in its work on corporate governance.
2. The main role of the ASB is to contribute to the establishment of improvement of standards for financial reporting. The ASB collaborates with accounting standard-setters from other countries and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) both in order to influence the development of international standards and in order to ensure that its standards are developed with due regard to international developments.
3. The ASB has eleven Board members, of whom two (the Chairman and the Technical Director) are full-time, and the remainder, who represent a variety of interests, are part-time.
4. EFRAG and the European National Standard Setters, under the banner 'Pro-active Accounting Activities in Europe' (PAAinE), have agreed to pool their resources and work together more closely so that Europe as a whole can participate more effectively in the global accounting debate. It was agreed that this initiative should in the beginning concentrate on long-term pro-active work. The objective of the initiative is to stimulate debate on important items on the IASB agenda at an early stage in the standard-setting process before the IASB formally issues its proposals. The initiative has the joint ambitions of representing a European point of view and exercising greater influence on the standard-setting process.
5. Press enquiries should be addressed to Ian Mackintosh (Chairman) on 020 7492 2434, David Loweth (Technical Director) on 020 7492 2420 or Andrew Lennard (Director of Research) 020 7492 2430.