The Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) released an IASB Discussion Paper on the Preliminary Views on Amendments to IAS 19 Employee Benefits (pdf). The paper sets out the IASB’s preliminary views on how the accounting for some post-employment benefits, including pensions, could be improved. Criticisms levelled at the existing standard include:

• the deferral of the recognition of gains and losses leads to misleading figures in the statement of financial position  
  
• the multiple options for deferring recognition lead to poor comparability across companies  
  
• the lack of clarity in the definitions of benefit promises lead to inconsistencies and poor comparability for those benefit promises that include a promised return on contributions linked to an asset or an index  
  
• the required measurement method is inadequate for those benefit promises that include a promised return on contributions linked to an asset or an index.

• to remove the options for deferred recognition of gains and losses in defined benefit plans, i.e. remove the “corridor approach” 
  
• to introduce a new classification of benefit promises into contribution-based promises and defined benefit promises, with a new measurement attribute for contribution-based promises.