Document ID: SEC-2017-0346-0001
Agency: sec
Document Type: Notice
Title: IFRS Taxonomy: Foreign Private Issuers That Prepare their Financial Statements in Accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as Issued by International Accounting Standards Board
Posted Date: 2017-03-06T05:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 42 (Monday, March 6, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12641-12642]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-04241]

=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Release Nos. 33-10320; 34-80128]

IFRS Taxonomy for Foreign Private Issuers That Prepare Their 
Financial Statements in Accordance With International Financial 
Reporting Standards as Issued by the International Accounting Standards 
Board

AGENCY: Securities and Exchange Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability of IFRS Taxonomy.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') is 
providing notice that the IFRS Taxonomy has been published on the 
Commission's Web site as provided for by the EDGAR Filer Manual. 
Accordingly, the IFRS Taxonomy is available for foreign private issuers 
to submit their financial statements in XBRL.

DATES: The IFRS Taxonomy was published on the Commission's Web site 
pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T on March 1, 2017.

ADDRESSES: The IFRS Taxonomy is available on the Commission's Web site 
at https://www.sec.gov/page/derataxonomies.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mark W. Green, Senior Special Counsel 
(Regulatory Policy), Division of Corporation Finance, at (202) 551-
3430; Robert Sledge or Kevin Vaughn, Office of the Chief Accountant, at 
(202) 551-5300; or Mike Willis, Assistant Director, Division of 
Economic and Risk Analysis, at (202) 551-6600, Securities and Exchange 
Commission, 100 F Street NE., Washington, DC 20549-7010.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On January 30, 2009, the Commission adopted 
rules to require domestic public companies and foreign private issuers 
\1\ that prepare their financial statements in accordance with U.S. 
generally accepted accounting principles (U.S. GAAP), and foreign 
private issuers that prepare their financial statements using 
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as issued by the 
International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), to provide their 
financial statements to the Commission and on their corporate Web 
sites, if any, in interactive data format using the eXtensible Business 
Reporting Language (XBRL).\2\ Among other things, the Commission 
adopted Rule 405 of Regulation S-T, requiring filers to prepare 
Interactive Data Files that comply with EDGAR Filer Manual 
requirements.\3\ Section 6.3.9 of Volume II of the EDGAR Filer Manual 
requires use of a taxonomy specified on the Commission's Web site.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ See 17 CFR 240.3b-4(c).
    \2\ See Interactive Data To Improve Financial Reporting, Release 
No. 33-9002 (Jan. 30, 2009), 74 FR 6776 (Feb. 10, 2009) (``XBRL 
Adopting Release'').
    \3\ 17 CFR 232.405.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Commission required foreign private issuers that prepare their 
financial statements in accordance with IFRS as issued by the IASB to 
begin their submissions in year three of a phase-in period.\4\ The 
Commission believed at that time that, by the phase-in date, the EDGAR 
system would be able to support an IFRS taxonomy and an IFRS taxonomy 
would be sufficiently advanced to require its use.\5\ Because the 
Commission had not specified on its Web site an IFRS taxonomy, foreign 
private issuers that use IFRS as issued by the IASB have not submitted 
their financial statement information to the Commission in XBRL. In 
recognition of the fact that it was not possible for foreign private 
issuers that use IFRS as issued by the IASB to comply with the 
Interactive Data File requirements until the Commission specified on 
its Web site a taxonomy for such use, in 2011 the Commission staff 
stated that foreign private issuers that prepare their financial 
statements in accordance with IFRS as issued by the IASB were not 
required to submit to the Commission and post on their corporate Web 
sites, if any, Interactive Data Files until the Commission specified on 
its Web site a

[[Page 12642]]

taxonomy for use by such foreign private issuers in preparing their 
Interactive Data Files.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \4\ See, e.g., 17 CFR 229.601(b)(101).
    \5\ See XBRL Adopting Release, 74 FR at 6785-86.
    \6\ See SEC No-Action Letter from the Division of Corporation 
Finance and the Office of the Chief Accountant to the Center for 
Audit Quality (Apr. 8, 2011), available at http://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/cf-noaction/2011/caq040811.htm. With the issuance 
of this notice and the posting of the IFRS taxonomy on the 
Commission's Web site, the letter is now moot.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    On March 1, 2017, the IFRS Taxonomy was specified on the 
Commission's Web site, as provided by the EDGAR Filer Manual.\7\ 
Accordingly, foreign private issuers that prepare their financial 
statements in accordance with IFRS as issued by the IASB and are 
subject to Rule 405 may immediately begin submitting their financial 
statements in interactive data format. Although existing Rule 405 would 
require foreign private issuers that prepare their financial statements 
in accordance with IFRS as issued by the IASB to submit financial data 
in XBRL upon publication of the taxonomy, the Commission is providing 
notice that such issuers may first submit financial data in XBRL with 
their first annual report on Form 20-F or 40-F for a fiscal period 
ending on or after December 15, 2017.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \7\ See Section 6.3.9 of Volume II of the EDGAR Filer Manual.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    By the Commission.

    Dated: March 1, 2017.
Brent J. Fields,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2017-04241 Filed 3-3-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 8011-01-P