Definition of Publicly Accountable Enterprises

The following definition has been adopted for the purposes of determining which Part of the CICA Handbook - Accounting applies to a reporting entity.

A publicly accountable enterprise is an entity, other than a not-for-profit organization, or a government or other entity in the public sector, that:

has issued, or is in the process of issuing, debt or equity instruments that are, or will be, outstanding and traded in a public market (a domestic or foreign stock exchange or an over-the-counter market, including local and regional markets); or  
holds assets in a fiduciary capacity for a broad group of outsiders as one of its primary businesses.  

Banks, credit unions, insurance companies, securities brokers/dealers, mutual funds and investment banks typically meet the second criterion above. Other entities may also hold assets in a fiduciary capacity for a broad group of outsiders because they hold and manage financial resources entrusted to them by clients, customers or members not involved in the management of the entity. However, if they do so for reasons incidental to a primary business (as, for example, may be the case for travel or real estate agents, co-operative enterprises requiring a nominal membership deposit or sellers that receive payment in advance of delivery of the goods or services, such as utility companies), that does not make them publicly accountable.

When PAEs adopt IFRS, the primary standard applicable to pension plans will continue to be Section 4100, Pension Plan, instead of IAS 26, Accounting and Reporting by Retirement Benefit Plans. The AcSB will consider whether any changes to Section 4100 are needed.

Note:

Deciding whether an enterprise is publicly accountable is a matter of professional judgment.  In making this determination, some questions to be asked include:

a) Do I consider myself to be publicly accountable (irrespective of the words used in the definitions)? b) Do I hold and manage financial resources (e.g., deposits or advances) entrusted to me by a broad group of clients, customers or members who are not involved in the management of the entity?  If yes:

(i) What is (are) my primary business(es)?
(ii) Is holding and managing such financial resources an integral part of any one of my primary businesses, i.e., could I conduct the business without holding and managing the financial resources?  If I could, the reasons for holding the financial resources might be incidental to the primary business.  
(iii) Has receiving, holding and managing such financial resources created a new primary business, and would holding and managing the financial resources be considered an integral part of that business?

The definitions of publicly accountable enterprises and private enterprises in Canadian GAAP were based on the description of small and medium-sized entities in the IFRS for SMEs.  The IFRS Foundation has published training material for the IFRS for SMEs. Paragraphs 1.3 and 1.4 of Module 1 of that material discuss the description of an SME and provide examples that may be helpful.  Paragraphs 1.3 and 1.4 of Module 1 of that material discuss the description of an SME and provide examples that may be helpful.