International Accounting: Proposed Changes to IAS 39 - Measurement Issues: Die Änderungsvorschlage des IASB

This paper deals with the subsequent measurement of financial instruments under IAS/IFRS. After giving an overview of the general approaches to the subsequent measurement of financial instruments and some background on the development of IAS 39, this paper first deals with the current provisions of IAS 39. The paper then presents and discusses the proposed changes to subsequent measurement as suggested by the Exposure Draft on proposed amendments to IAS 32 „Financial Instruments: Disclosure and Presentation“ and IAS 39 „Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement“ (ED) issued in summer 2002. Especially the issue whether those proposed changes may alleviate the need for the use of the specific hedge accounting provisions of IAS 39 will be discussed. In summary, the reasons for some of the proposed changes in subsequent measurement are sometimes far from being convincing. While, for example, the changes in designation may overall be welcomed, especially the removal of reversals of impairment for available-for-sale financial instruments departs significantly from the treatment of impairment in other IAS and leads to inconsistencies within IAS 39. In general, with respect to hedge accounting the IASB is well short of target. Even minor changes which could ease the implementation of the standard without touching the fundamental concepts were obviously not even considered (e.g. lowering the ex ante hedge effectiveness level.required, introducing the short cut method, removal of the restriction of portfolio/index hedging etc.).