Introduction

BCE.174 Throughout the Hedge Accounting project, the IASB performed outreach and consulted with interested parties, with the largest outreach meeting being attended by over 200 participants. The IASB also had extensive discussions with regulators and audit firms worldwide. The analysis in paragraphs BCE.175–BCE.238 is based on the feedback received through this process. Overall, the IASB held over 145 outreach meetings in all the major jurisdictions and also evaluated 247 comment letters received in response to the Exposure Draft Hedge Accounting, which was published in 2010 (‘2010 Hedge Accounting Exposure Draft’). The IASB also considered comments received on the draft Standard posted on its website in September 2012.

Overview

BCE.175 Financial reporting should provide transparent information to enable better economic decision-making. Hedge accounting relates to the reporting of risk management activities that entities enter into, to manage their exposures to the risks identified as relevant, from a business perspective.

BCE.176 Over the last decades, the extent and complexity of hedging activities have increased substantially. This has been caused not only by entities’ increasing willingness and ability to manage their exposures, but also by the increased availability of financial instruments to manage those exposures.