The proposal is that, in the first interim report after a change in the composition of an entity’s reportable segments, the entity shall present restated segment information for all interim periods both of the current financial year and of prior financial years, unless the information is not available and the cost to develop it would be excessive.

The interim information of the prior annual reporting period is currently required to be restated, but an entity does not need to provide the restated information for a comparative interim period until information for that corresponding current interim period is reported.

This can mean that users of financial statements have to wait for a full year’s interim reporting cycle to be completed before they receive restated segment information for each comparative interim period.

Following its research, the IASB proposes that all interim periods of the prior financial years shall be restated and presented in the first interim financial report after a change in the composition of reportable segments. This would not require the preparation of any additional information—the restatements already required would simply be presented earlier. Presenting those restatements in the first interim report after the change would enable users of the financial statements to update their modelling of data and trend information in a timely manner.

The effect of this proposed change can be illustrated by reference to an entity that reports quarterly and has an annual financial reporting date of 31 December:

(a) if the composition of the entity’s reportable segments was changed on 1 January, its interim financial report for the period ending 31 March would be the first to be prepared on the basis of the new composition of reportable segments. That interim report would be required to include restated segment information for each of the four quarters of the prior annual reporting period; or

(b) if the composition of the entity’s reportable segments was changed on 1 April, its interim financial report for the period ending 30 June (ie, second quarter) would be the first to be prepared on the basis of the new composition of reportable segments. That interim report would be required to include restated segment information for each of the four quarters of the prior annual reporting period, in addition to information for the first quarter of the current year based on the new composition of reportable segments.

Details are included in the Exposure Draft, Improvements to IFRS 8 Operating Segments (Proposed amendments to IFRS 8 and IAS 34), available here