The Senior Partner of the firm you work for has appointed you to a new role. It is now your responsibility to review upcoming accounting standards and provide a report to the partners on the proposed standard and the opinions of other industry players on the changes.

Firstly, you are required to find a current exposure draft or proposal for a new accounting standard which has been opened for public comments. (These can be found on the websites of most standard-setting organisations, such as the IASB, AASB and FASB. Hint: These websites can be quite difficult to navigate, so as a first step try typing “IASB exposure draft and comment letters”/”FASB exposure draft and comment letters” into Google or other search engine of your choice). Read a sample of the comments from a range of respondents. Select four respondents, ideally from different types of organisations for example, from accounting bodies, industry, companies or corporate bodies. If you are having a problem finding suitable comments letters then contact your subject coordinator.

In your own words, supporting your evaluation with appropriate citations, appropriately referenced in APA 6 style, you are required to include the following information in the report.

An outline of the major issues covered in the exposure draft (what is the exposure draft introducing or changing?).

An assessment as to whether (or not) the behaviour of the regulator in introducing the exposure draft can be explained by public interest theory.

An outline of the views presented in the comments letters which highlights the areas of agreement and disagreement with the exposure draft.

An assessment as to whether the comments letters can be interpreted as being 'for' or 'against' which provides relevant examples.

An application of each of the theories of regulation (public interest, private interest and capture) to the comments letters and a justification as to which theory best explains the comments.

Please note: you need to attach the comment letters you selected for your report (there is no need to attach the exposure draft)

Content assessed: Accounting regulation, current financial reporting issues and topics(s) that your research is related to.
Key generic skills: Research, critical thinking and written communication.

Rationale

This assessment is designed to test your ability to:

communicate your understanding of the topic areas; and be able to critically evaluate selected current financial reporting and management accounting issues (SLO4).