The General Overview of the ISSB

The General Overview of the ISSB

2022-08-25

The Taiwan Accounting Research and Development Foundation (ARDF) hosted the webinar “The General Overview of the ISSB”, inviting Ms. Katie Schmitz Eulitt, from the International Financial Reporting Standards ( IFRS)Foundation, to share the current development of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). There were more than 300 people attending this webinar on August 25,2022.

At the beginning, Dr. Chen-Shan Chang, Director-General, the Securities and Futures Bureau of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), mentioned in his speech: 「The SFC has referred to the TCFD and SASB for Taiwan listed companies to strengthen the disclosure quality of the ESG reporting. Starting from 2023, Taiwan listed companies will be required to disclose their carbon emission information by the size and industry of companies.

Dr. Doris Wang, Chairperson of the ARDF, said that under the guidance of the FSC, the ARDF is also conducting research projects to traditional Chinese translation of the sustainability disclosure standards proposed by the ISSB.

Katie mentioned that the IFRS Foundation announced the establishment of the ISSB on COP26 last November, and consolidated the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF), which initially released the SASB Standards. The ISSB has released the drafts of IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 recently, was opened for comments until the end of July this year.

The ISSB has received more than 1,300 comment letters all over the world. Katie further explained that the preliminary analysis of the comments can be classified as five key points: proportionality, enterprise value, timing, data challenges, and industry-based requirements.

Mr. Zhong-Hao Huang, Director, Accounting and Auditing Supervision Division, Securities and Futures Bureau, FSC, mentioned that from the comment drafts received by the ISSB, the compliance of enterprises could require the competent authorities to adjust and arrange regulations. Mr. Huang believed that the most challenging thing would be the timing of the release of the ESG report, whether referring to the financial report. In addition, under globalization and supply chain, it is necessary to observe the progress of the international regulations trend to find a feasible way. In addition, the panel discussion was held during this session： The webinar host, Dr. Doris Wang, the chairperson of the ARDF; Ms. Katie Schmitz Eulitt, Senior Market Co-Leader for APAC, IFRS Foundation; Dr. Chen-Shan Chang, Director-General, Securities and Futures Bureau of the FSC; Mr. Zhong-Hao Huang, Director, Accounting and Auditing Supervision Division, Securities and Futures Bureau of the FSC, Mr. Winston Yu from KPMG in Taiwan; Mr. Ho,Brian Chi Kuen from Deloitte Singapore; Alice Fang from Deloitte Taiwan.

"Exploring the Industry Classification of Listed Companies in Taiwan: Reference to SASB New Industry Classification (SICS)" published according to the SASB “Sustainable Industry Classification System” will be released in the second edition next month. Dr Doris Wang, Chairperson of the ARDF, who is also the author. Doris said that the second edition currently has been applied to SASB for authorization. This eBook will continue to improve the understanding of the standard industry classification codes of Taiwan enterprises.