Bringing Asia-Oceania standard setters together in Auckland

On 12 and 13 November, the XRB will join the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) in hosting the Asian-Oceanian Standard-Setters Group (AOSSG) annual meeting in Auckland. 

The 30 member jurisdictions and their respective standard-setting organisations span across the region, including Australia, China, Singapore, Dubai, Fiji, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Vietnam. We will welcome Hagit Keren, a board member of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to this forum.

The topics set to be discussed reflect some of the important issues standard setters are thinking about right now. This includes the developments in IFRS Accounting Standards, implementation of IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, digital financial reporting and structured data, artificial intelligence, intangible assets, and not-for-profit reporting.

The XRB will share research from across Asia-Oceania on the adoption of IFRS 19, Subsidiaries without Public Accountability: Disclosures standard and how this information is being used in informing our accounting standards framework review project in New Zealand.

High-quality international standards help provide consistency and confidence in reporting across global capital markets. Developing standards that work across different economies and reporting environments depends on strong relationships and the exchange of perspectives between jurisdictions.

Regional relationships provide an important bridge between New Zealand and global standard setting. Through the AOSSG, we work with standard setters across the region, to exchange perspectives and contribute regional views to international standard-setting.

These conversations are part of a much wider international dialogue.

In September, XRB joined more than 150 standard setters and reporting experts from 73 countries and regions for a series of international standard-setting meetings in London, including the World Standard-setters Conference 2026, the International Forum of Accounting Standard Setters (IFASS), and the Accounting Standards Advisory Forum (ASAF).

Highlights included sharing the research we commissioned evaluating the climate-related disclosure framework, sharing jurisdictional updates on the adoption and implementation of NZ IFRS 18 - the new presentation and disclosure standard, and exchanging perspectives on accounting and sustainability reporting with counterparts from Europe, the UK and Singapore.

At the Accounting Standards Advisory Forum (ASAF), we brought New Zealand perspectives to technical discussions on intangible assets and proposed changes to the provisions standard.

We also met members of the IFRS Foundation's brand-new leadership team.

Among them was the newly appointed New Zealand-born Sam Woods, Chair of the IASB and a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England and CEO of the UK Prudential Regulation Authority. This is yet another reminder that New Zealanders continue to have a strong presence in global standard setting, including at its highest levels.