No exemptions for share plans, says IASB
The International Accounting Standards Board has rejected pleas to exempt some share option schemes from proposed new rules.
Link: IASB online special report
In its meeting last week the board rejected calls for broad-based employee share-ownership schemes to be allowed to continue without costs being recorded in the balance sheet. The IASB had previously stated that it had not heard a case strong enough to alter its thinking on the mater and this decision reflects the board’s hard line stance on this subject.
Opponents of the standard on share-based payment claim that the new rules could force company’s to cut back on the share ownership schemes or axe them altogether. Many however have refused to give up the fight.
‘We are very disappointed by the lack of any substantial discussion by the IASB on all employee share plans,’ said Diane Hay, chief executive of ProShare. ‘It seems the IASB have again not listened to the views expressed by those responding to their draft rules consultation. We will however continue to present arguments for the exemption of all employee share plans by taking this to the European Commission, who must endorse these rules before they can be implemented across Europe.’