B1 The IASC Board (the "Board") approved IAS 25 Accounting for Investments in 1986. In 1994, the Board approved a reformatted version of IAS 25 presented in the revised format adopted for International Accounting Standards from 1991. Certain terminology was also changed at that time to bring it into line with then current IASC practice. No substantive changes were made to the original approved text.

B2 IAS 25 was one of the standards that the Board identified for possible revision in E32 Comparability of Financial Statements. Following comments on the proposals in E32, the Board decided to defer consideration of IAS 25, pending further work on Financial Instruments. In 1998, the Board approved IAS 38 Intangible Assets and IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement, [IFRS 9 Financial Instruments replaced IAS 39. IFRS 9 applies to all items that were previously within the scope of IAS 39. This paragraph refers to matters relevant when IAS 40 was issued.] leaving IAS 25 to cover investments in real estate, commodities and tangible assets such as vintage cars and other collectors' items.

B3 In July 1999, the Board approved E64 Investment Property, with a comment deadline of 31 October 1999. The Board received 121 comment letters on E64. Comment letters came from various international organisations, as well as from 28 individual countries. The Board approved IAS 40 Investment Property in March 2000. Paragraph B67 below summarises the changes that the Board made to E64 in finalising IAS 40.