The Commission Regulation (EU) No 1256/2012 of 13 December 2012, published in the Official Journal of the European Union L 360 on 29 December 2012, adopts the amendments amendments to IFRS 7 Financial Instruments: Disclosures –Offsetting Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities and to IAS 32 Financial Instruments: Presentation – Offsetting Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities.

The amendment to IFRS 7 aims to require the provision of additional quantitative information in order to allow the users to better compare and reconcile the disclosures under IFRS and the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) of the United States. In addition, the IASB amended IAS 32 to provide additional guidance to reduce inconsistent application of the standard in practice.

Each company shall apply the amendments to IFRS 7 and IAS 32 Offsetting Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities as from the commencement date of its first financial year starting on or after 1 January 2013.

The further amendments to IAS 32are applied, at the latest, as from the commencement date of its first financial year starting on or after 1 January 2014.

The amendments to IFRS 7 Financial Instruments: Disclosures – Transfers of Financial Assets were adopted by Commission Regulation (EU) No 1205/2011 of 22 November 2011. However, the deletion of paragraph 13 of IFRS 7 was inadvertently omitted. This Regulation should remedy this omission. In order for this provision to be efficient, it should apply from 1 July 2011. The provision of retroactivity is necessary with the view to ensure legal certainty for the issuers concerned.