Q: In the March IVSC Standards Board meeting, Sir David Tweedie suggested your Board should meet with various Standards experts from each of the VPO’s (Valuation Professional Organizations) and get feedback from them on how they are implementing Standards in their jurisdictions or countries. What do you think are the biggest obstacles that these VPO’s are having in implementing International Valuation Standards?
A: Many of the VPO’s signed an MOU (Memo of Understanding) with us, and we committed to undertake a very extensive process to narrow the gap between the various sets of Standards that exist around the world, in order to make it easier to adopt IVS Standards in their jurisdiction. This process has been underway for almost 18 months and it really picked up momentum when the IVSC reorganized in the summer of 2015. The IVSC had several senior staff members seconded to us from major organizations who have been working almost full time.
Since then, and at the Standards Board meeting, we have materially expanded our efforts. We have significantly upgraded the Standards based on meaningful input from both VPO’s around the world and from those who were involved in restructuring the IVSC. I feel really proud of the progress we have made and hopefully the VPO’s, when they see exposure drafts coming out in the coming weeks, will feel the same way. It is our wish that the Standards will get finalized next fall at our annual meeting. Hopefully any concerns that existed when the MOU was signed will now be viewed as very minimal by the VPOs.
Q: Going forward, can you please review what the timetable is and how all of this is going to play out?
A: First we are committed to a robust and transparent process, as witnessed in the public meeting you attended. Given we are totally rewriting some chapters of the 2013 Standards, and expanding certain others, we will roll out exposure drafts of the Standards in two waves (April and late May). We have a requirement that once we release Exposure Drafts, we need to give the public at least 90 days to respond. Hopefully we will get significant Comments Letters from VPO’s, major firms and boutique organizations in all sectors, across all jurisdictions, that will further allow us to tighten up these draft revisions to the Standards.
We will take all the feedback and incorporate it as best we can. We will determine if we need to issue Exposure Drafts again, hopefully we won’t, but the market will tell us that.
We are planning our next public meeting for early September in London, in order to take those comments and integrate them as best possible. We will have the Standards Board finalize IVS 2017 in advance of the IVSC annual meeting, next October.
At our public meeting in September, we will enable people to dial in if they cannot attend. It will be recorded so people can replay it and hear in a very transparent setting what was discussed and what we have done.
Q: You told me earlier today that you had done the “Polar Dip” in Chicago in 36 degree water and went for a swim. How was that? Was that one item off your bucket list, what is next?
A: I saw The Bucket List movie and try to come up with interesting things to do on my own or with my family. I did sky diving a couple of years ago and that was a fun one. I had been putting off the polar dive for years as either there was a storm coming or they had to break through the ice to let you in. Even though the water was only 36 degrees, I went for it with 6,000 other people. I guess if I had any Canadian blood I would have done it in a storm or through the ice!
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