From the IFRS Institute – September 05, 2025
Authors: Vaibhav Poddar, Ingo Zielhoff and Valerie Boissou
Segment reporting for US registrants, whether domestic or foreign, continues to be a focal point for the SEC. While the guidance in IFRS 81 and ASC 2802 is broadly aligned, there are a number of key differences. This article has been updated to reflect the issuance of a 2024 IFRS Interpretations Committee agenda decision related to IFRS 83, FASB’s recent amendments to ASC 280 introduced by ASU 2023-074, and updated remarks by the SEC staff.
Segment reporting has consistently been a hot topic for financial statement preparers, auditors, investors and regulators ever since the FASB first issued guidance on the subject in 1997. Much inspired by its US GAAP equivalent, IFRS 8 was published by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in 2006 and has been in effect since 2009.
The objective of segment reporting is for public companies to disclose information about their operations that may not be obvious from the financial statements. It allows financial statement users to see through the eyes of management to understand how management views the operating results and financial position of the company’s reportable segments.
While segment reporting leverages information prepared for internal purposes, it remains challenging to apply and involves a number of key judgments. This topic has been subject to continuous SEC scrutiny over the years; domestic and foreign US registrants frequently receive comments from the SEC staff on their segment disclosures.
Under both IFRS 8 and ASC 280, a company’s financial results and financial position are disaggregated by reportable segment. Identifying reportable segments and segment information to disclose is a multi-step process, as presented below.