ECCB 2023-2024 Annual Report

Eastern Caribbean Central Bank Notes to the Financial Statements For the year ended 31 March 2024 (Expressed in Eastern Caribbean dollars)

2. Material accounting policies (continued) a) Basis of preparation (continued)

New standards, interpretations and amendments to existing standards effective in the current financial year Certain new standards, interpretations and amendments to existing standards have been published that became effective during the current financial year. The Bank has assessed the relevance of all such new standards, interpretations and amendments and has concluded that the following are relevant to its operations: Amendments to IAS 1 and IFRS Practice Statement 2 - Disclosure of Accounting Policies (effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2023). The IASB amended IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements to require entities to disclose their material rather than their significant accounting policies. The amendments define what is ‘material accounting policy information’ (being information that, when considered together with other information included in an entity’s financial statements, can reasonably be expected to influence decisions that the primary users of general purpose financial statements make on the basis of those financial statements) and explain how to identify when accounting policy information is material. They further clarify that immaterial accounting policy information does not need to be disclosed. If it is disclosed, it should not obscure material accounting information. To support the amendments to IAS 1, the IASB also amended IFRS Practice Statement 2, Making Materiality Judgements”, to provide guidance on the concept of materiality and its application to accounting policy disclosures. The adoption of this amendment and Practice Statement have no impact on the measurement or presentation of any items in the financial statements of the Bank, but impact the disclosure of accounting policies of the Bank. Amendments to IAS 8 - Definition of Accounting Estimates , (effective for annual period beginning on or after 1 January 2023). The amendment to IAS 8 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors clarifies how companies should distinguish changes in accounting policies from changes in accounting estimates. The distinction is important, because changes in accounting estimates are applied prospectively to future transactions and other future events, whereas changes in accounting policies are generally applied retrospectively to past transactions and other past events as well as the current period. The amendments also clarify that accounting estimates are monetary amounts in the financial statements subject to measurement uncertainty. The amendments also clarify the relationship between accounting policies and accounting estimates by specifying that a company develops an accounting estimate to achieve the objective set out by an accounting policy. These amendments had no effect on the financial statements of the Bank.

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