IASB January 2010

The boards decided not to adopt any of the approaches that they have previously considered. Instead, they directed the staff to analyse a possible amendment to IAS 32 Financial Instruments: Presentation. The effects of that possible amendment have not yet been specified but the following are some possibilities:

• A requirement to classify as equity shares puttable only if specified certain events occur, such as the death or retirement of the holder
• A requirement to separate some puttable shares into equity and liability components
• A slight relaxation of the provision that to qualify as equity, a financial instrument involving exchanges of equity instruments for cash must require an exchange of a fixed number of shares for a fixed amount of cash.