One of the most complex accounting standards in the IFRS accounting literature that is complex and often difficult to apply is IAS 39.
In spring of 2009, the G-20 leaders, the Financial Stability Board, and various stakeholders urged the IASB and the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to reduce the complexity of accounting standards for financial instruments and make significant progress towards a single set of high quality global accounting standards.
IASB divided this project of the replacement of the financial instruments standard in into separate phases. The aim is to replace IAS 39 in its entirety by the end of 2010 (see timeline – click to enlarge). As each phase is completed, chapters with the new requirements will be added to IFRS 9, and the relevant portions deleted from IAS 39, i.e. with the completion of this project IFRS 9 will be the only surviving accounting standard for the recognition, classification, measurement, impairment of the financial instruments.
As you see from the above timeline, in November 2009, the IASB published the first phase of IFRS 9 Financial Instruments, which focuses on the classification and measurement of financial assets, with the work on other phases is currently ongoing, and includes financial liabilities, impairment of financial instruments, hedge accounting, and derecognition. To monitor the developments of the of this accounting standard follow this link at the IASB website.
Sources: IASB.org; Ernst and Young’s publication titled “Key IFRS accounting developments affecting asset managers and funds”