The trustees of the IFRS Foundation, responsible for the oversight and governance of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), have amended its constitution, reducing the size of the board from 16 to 14 and reclassifying the geographical distribution of trustees
The amendments follow a public consultation in 2015 reviewing the IFRS Foundation’s structure, which included ten proposed changes to the constitution.
The main changes are a reduction in the number of board members from 16 to 14, which is the number of members the board has been operating with for a while; amendments to the geographical distribution of board members and trustees; and amendments to board members’ and trustees’ professional background requirements.
They include combining the previous North America and South America categories into one Americas category, removing the requirements for two trustees to come from an audit firm, and remunerating trustees with an annual fee only (no fee per meeting as before).
Other changes are that the publication of proposed or final standards will require approval by nine if there are 14 Board members and eight if there are 13 or fewer board members. The number of meetings are to be cut from a minimum three to a minimum two per year, with flexibility to hold more if required.
Michel Prada, chair of the IFRS Foundation trustees, said: ‘These changes safeguard the flexibility required to meet the evolving demands on the organisation and ensure the composition of both trustees and board members is as inclusive and balanced as it needs to be for the organisation to operate effectively.’
