On May 19, the OSC's Corporate Finance Branch issued a notice identifying deficiencies found in issuers' first IFRS interim financial reports for the quarter ending March 31. Specifically, the notice discussed deficiencies related to missing IFRS 1 reconciliations, missing opening IFRS statements of financial position and missing statements of changes in equity. The OSC reminded issuers that internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) and disclosure controls and procedures (DC&P) should be robust enough to address the transition to IFRS and the notice stated that non-compliant issuers would be placed on a list of defaulting reporting issuers until deficiencies were remedied. Issuers with deficient disclosure will be expected to refile interim financial reports, along with revised CEO/CFO certificates.
To help issuers deal with some of these issues upfront, the Corporate Finance Branch issued a checklist earlier this week listing key elements of a first IFRS interim financial report (which is still relevant given the extended deadline for the first IFRS interim filing, which we discussed in our post of April 11). Tip sheets for issuers with year-ends of March 31, June 30 and September 30 are also available.
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