The International Valuation Profession Board (IVPB) is currently developing best practice guidance in four critical areas:

• Identification of Contributory Assets and the Calculation of Economic Rates
• Discounted Cash Flow Analysis for Market Valuations and Investment Analyses
• Guidance on the Valuation of Investment Property under Construction
• The Cost Approach for Financial Reporting.

Work is already underway in the first area.  In the meantime, the IVPB is creating three work groups in the three remaining areas. Anyone interested in joining any group should send a CV to the IVSC Executive Director, mtissier@ivsc.org, by February 28, 2010. The groups will not meet in person but conduct most of their work by email and conference calls under the guidance of a Chair (to be selected from the IVSB).

In further news, the International Standards Valuation Board (ISVB) plans to rewrite and update the current edition of International Valuation Standards (8th edition, 2007). The improvements will fall into three broad categories: to remove any bias toward a single asset type; to improve the structure of the book and the focus of the standards; and to remove material that purports to dictate valuator behavior. The ISVB wants to release an exposure draft in May 2010 with publication to follow by the year.