IASB publishes draft amendments to IAS 32

On 29 November 2023, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published the Exposure Draft Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Equity Proposed amendments to IAS 32, IFRS 7 and IAS 1. The IASB proposes amendments to IAS 32 in relation to the distinction between equity and liabilities and to IFRS 7 and IAS 1 on disclosure and presentation requirements.

The aim of the project is to address the accounting challenges posed by increasingly complex financial instruments.

Specifically, the IASB proposes the following:

• Clarification of the classification principles of IAS 32 to help entities to distinguish between debt and equity;
• Amendments to IFRS 7 regarding disclosures to explain the complexity of instruments that have both debt and equity features; and
• Amendments to IAS 1 regarding the separate presentation of amounts attributable to ordinary shareholders and amounts attributable to other holders of equity instruments (profit or loss and other comprehensive income).

The exposure draft can be commented on until 29 March 2024 and is available for download on the IASB's website.