IASB podcast May 2026

Linda, why don't we start with intangible assets and maybe a little bit of the background on the project?

Yeah, I think that's a good idea.

And you know, Bob, I've been getting a lot of questions about what's happening with this project, so I think it's cool that we're gonna be telling some-- them some good stuff about this.

So remind everybody that the Intangible Assets project was launched in response to, uh, a request from our third agenda consultation, and stakeholders were very keen and said this is an important area.

And so last year, we set two main objectives for the project.

One was to improve the usefulness of the information that entities provide about intangible items in their financial statements for the users of those financial statements, and also to take a good look at IAS 38.

Now, I always remind people that when we have a standard that starts with IAS, that means it's a bit older than the standards that start with IFRS, although s- we go into those standards periodically and update them.

But we're going to look at the sum total of IAS 38 and make sure that it's suitable for the newer types of intangible items and the new ways of using them that we see in today's world.

And let's face it, in today's world, things are changing really rapidly.

So I want to remind people that this is a large project, and I've said that it's-- the world is evolving a lot in this particular area.

And so when we-- we're doing our comprehensive review, we're trying to do it in a very focused way, and we have two streams of work that we're working on right now.

One is, as I said, looking at user information needs, and the other is exploring potential changes to the definition and recognition requirements based on some test cases.

So we've alway-- we've already carried out some extensive research on both these streams, and the exciting news, uh, is that Bob is gonna give us an update in terms of what we discussed this month.

But I'll remind people that we also began discussing the test case work stream in January.

So this month, we focused on the investors' information needs.

And as Linda indicated, this is a area that is changing very fast, um, but why do we focus on investor information needs? Well, intangible assets have become much more important in driving a company's profits in today's economy.

Uh, you see it in the news.

We are talking about intellectual property, software, patents, and brands, just as some examples of these intangible assets that are driving companies.

And the types of intangibles and their importance varies by industry.

Y- you see the importance in pharmaceuticals, uh, in technology companies, telecommunication companies, and entertainment.

And yet, while intangible assets are so important, investors say they are not getting enough information, hence the importance of identifying their needs.

Over the last few months, the team has been researching this area and talking to investors.

At this meeting, the team brought their findings, uh, to-- for the board to discuss and ask questions about, but they didn't ask for any decisions.

Now, to put this in context, one of the key messages the team said that, uh, they learned from user outreach was that users are seeking to understand how intangible assets and activities around intangible assets drive future cash flows and overall business performance, rather than trying to seek the value of individual intangible assets in isolation.

And from that, they identified four key challenges that a- analysts have raised in looking at intangible assets in the financial statements.