Automotive giant Volkswagen is the latest company to report a dip in profits in the first quarter of the year as a result of switching to a new IFRS 9 Leases to report derivatives

Investors should not have to sift through excessive disclosures and poorly presented information to find the real value in financial statements, says Andrew Marshall, senior technical partner at KPMG

The Pensions Research Accountants Group (PRAG) is warning that pension funds are at high risk of attack from cyber criminals as they have access to extensive personal identity data including addresses, financial records and banking details, which can be sold, or used to compromise or steal from other victims

Technology company, Aspocomp, has had to adjust its 2018 opening statement of financial position due to the adoption of IFRS 9 Financial Instruments and IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers, with €1m being added to the company’s net sales for 2017

The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) is consulting on its proposed strategy and work plan covering the next five years, which will see the regulator leverage its completely rewritten and enhanced code of ethics 

HMRC has published the directors’ loan accounts agent toolkit for 2017-18, which is aimed at helping and supporting tax agents and advisers by providing guidance on errors that commonly occur in relation to directors’ loan accounts

Companies directors could be held personally liable for failing to assess, manage and report climate risk, where it poses a foreseeable and material financial risk to the company, according to research from Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI)

The Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC’s) financial reporting lab is carrying out an implementation study on how practice has changed as a result of its work on corporate reporting, and will reveal its findings at its conference in London in June

US industrial conglomerate General Electric (GE) has restated earnings for 2016 and 2017 to reflect new accounting standards, reducing reported profits by 17% and disclosing a new tax charge of $1.2bn (£97m)

A case heard in the commercial court in January 2018 concerning Phones 4U and EE has raised important points about whether a company can claim for ‘loss of bargain’ common law damages for a repudiatory breach of contract. Miles Robinson, partner and Zahra Rose Khawaja, an associate at Mayer Brown International examine the ruling

Companies are undecided about whether the quantity of information contained in annual reports is a good or a bad thing, although the majority still feel annual reporting is a useful exercise, according to research by ICSA: The Governance Institute and recruitment specialist The Core Partnership

The IFRS Foundation has indicated that the first three updates of modules designed to provide support to anyone learning about, applying or reading financial statements prepared using the IFRS for SMEs standard will be available shortly

 Tony Perkins, audit partner at BDO, explains the pros and cons of the full retrospective or catch-up approach tin the transition to accounting for revenue recognition under the new IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers focusing on issues for reporters preparing June 2018 interim accounts

The current patchwork of global financial regulations is costing $780bn (£549bn) a year as a result of inconsistencies between different jurisdictions, with smaller institutions more likely to experience additional costs, according to research from the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and Business at OECD (BIAC)

The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) has released a completely rewritten code of ethics for professional accountants designed to provide clearer advice about how accountants should deal with ethics and independence issues which it says is easier to navigate, use and enforce