The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is exploring how to help investors hold companies to account for acquisitions and improve the accounting for goodwill. A Discussion Paper titled Business Combinations—Disclosures, Goodwill and Impairment was released on March 19, 2020. The IASB’s preliminary view is that it should require a company to disclose information about its objectives for an acquisition and, in later periods, information about how that acquisition is performing against those objectives. The IASB has also been exploring whether to change the accounting for goodwill, and whether it can make the impairment test more effective and less complex.
The IASB discussion paper is available here.