IFRS Foundation Conference 2025—Key highlights

The IFRS Foundation Conference 2025 took place on 23 and 24 June, drawing more than 500 in-person and virtual delegates from 69 jurisdictions. With the theme ‘Knowledge in Practice’, the conference explored how standard-setting, stakeholder perspectives and real-world application together contribute to high-quality and globally comparable financial and sustainability reporting.

Delegates heard directly from members of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and technical staff members as they presented their latest projects and exchanged views with industry experts.

The IFRS Foundation would like to thank all delegates, speakers and partners for their participation and contributions to this year’s event.

Opening keynote: Taking stock and building for the future

Erkki Liikanen, Chair of the IFRS Foundation Trustees, opened the conference with a speech reflecting on the Foundation’s history, current position and future direction. He highlighted its role in developing global accounting and sustainability standards, the tangible benefits these standards bring to capital markets, and the ongoing transformation programme aimed at ensuring the Foundation's resilience and effectiveness in meeting its public-interest mission.

• Watch or read Erkki's full speech.

Keynote: Financial reporting in a fragmenting world

In his keynote, Andreas Barckow, Chair of the IASB, highlighted the vital role of global accounting standards in maintaining market confidence amid rising geopolitical and economic fragmentation. He stated that despite diverging global pressures, the demand for consistent, high-quality financial information remains strong.

Andreas outlined the IASB’s key achievements in 2024, including the completion of seven projects, and credited the continued support of stakeholders from more than 140 jurisdictions.

He closed by affirming that markets depend on trustworthy information—and by staying anchored in its public-interest mission, the IASB can continue to serve effectively in a changing world.

• Watch or read Andreas' full speech.

Keynote: Progress towards the global baseline

Emmanuel Faber, Chair of the ISSB, provided updates on the progress in adoption of the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards and the momentum built towards the global baseline of sustainability disclosures. He highlighted that fragmentation of sustainability standards has been averted with the establishment of the ISSB.

Looking forward, Emmanuel reiterated the shared responsibility to ensure that companies are providing reliable, comparable, and decision-useful disclosures so that investors can make better decisions.

He also spoke about the latest work by the ISSB to provide educational materials and build capacity, including the guidance on transition plans, and the ongoing work on interoperability with other standards and frameworks such as with the GRI.

• Watch Emmanuel's full speech.

Plenary panel: Better information for better decisions today

The plenary panel discussion featured investors talking about their needs and next steps they expect in standard-setting for both financial statements and sustainability-related disclosures. The panellists from Neuberger Berman, Eumedion, Capital Group and DWS discussed strategic considerations for current market and political conditions, the adequacy of current corporate disclosures, and areas needing further standardisation.

Joint IASB–ISSB Update

IASB Vice-Chair Linda Mezon-Hutter and ISSB Vice-Chair Sue Lloyd provided a joint update, outlining how the two boards are working both in parallel and collaboratively to respond to stakeholder needs. They highlighted efforts to strengthen connectivity between financial statements and sustainability-related disclosures. The session underscored the importance of connectivity to improve transparency and reduce complexity for companies and investors.

The update also covered each Board’s individual priorities. The IASB’s focus areas include the Post-implementation Review of IFRS 16 Leases, the forthcoming consultation on Dynamic Risk Management and the research on cash flows. The ISSB shared progress on transition plan disclosures, proposed amendments to IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures and enhancements to the SASB Standards.

Workshops

The conference featured several workshops exploring how IFRS Standards are being understood, applied and supported across different contexts.

• In the workshop on connectivity, panellists from the IFRS Foundation, CRUF, Heathrow Airport and Ernst & Young discussed investor, preparer and auditor perspectives on the need for building connectivity between a company’s financial statements and sustainability-related financial disclosures. Panellists discussed the practical implications of building in connectivity and the internal obstacles that companies need to overcome to ensure such connectivity serves their investors’ information needs. Panellists shared real-life examples of good connectivity and discussed best practices to help companies tell coherent story in their financial statements and their sustainability disclosures.
• The session on implementing IFRS 18 Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements offered an overview of the requirements in the new IFRS Accounting Standard and insights into the practical experiences of two companies and an auditor in implementing IFRS 18. Participants recounted their key discussions and considerations during the process, and then answered delegates’ questions.
• In the workshop on transition plans, panellists from the IFRS Foundation and UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) provided overviews of guidance materials on transition plan disclosures published by their respective organisations. The panellists explored complementary features of the guidance documents and showed how they can be used together to help companies meet disclosure requirements. The workshop covered the steps a company might take to develop, implement and report on a transition plan and participants shared their experiences of putting the steps into practice.

Breakout sessions

Breakout sessions offered topics including financial instruments, equity method, management commentary, IFRS 19 Subsidiaries without Public Accountability, consistent application of IFRS Accounting Standards, the ISSB’s work plan, implementation support for IFRS S1 and S2, and interoperability between European Sustainability Reporting Standards and ISSB Standards.

Closing reflections

The IFRS Foundation Conference 2025 concluded with an ‘Ask me anything’ session in which IASB and ISSB members along with technical staff responded directly to questions from the audience.

Across keynotes, panel sessions and workshops, the conference theme ‘Knowledge in Practice’ was brought to life, bridging standard-setting and real-world application.