Investors have lost trust in corporate reporting since the global financial crisis and are increasingly sceptical about the information companies provide, according to research from ACCA.

In a survey of 300 investors, 69% said they had become more sceptical about the information a company provides. Nearly two thirds (63%) said management had too much discretion over the financial numbers they report, and a similar proportion said they placed greater value on information generated outside the company. Getting on for half (45%) of respondents identified the annual report as being of no use.

Ewan Willars, ACCA director of policy, said: 'The decline in trust in corporate information since the global financial crisis suggests there is a bigger role for audit to play in rebuilding confidence in company statements. Accounting standard setters and regulators should be worried about the high percentage of investors who see no use to annual reports and the distrust of management discretion over company figures.'

ACCA's report Understanding Investors: directions for corporate reporting revealed strong support for the role of external assurance, which was seen as the main counterbalance to declining trust in company figures. Only in areas like profit warnings and emerging risks and opportunities did investors believe speed of information outweighed assurance. In addition, 41% wanted to see auditing being extended to quarterly reports.

But the survey shows a split in views on the value of quarterly reporting. While 75% of respondents saw this as useful in terms of their own investment decisions, 65% agreed that it created short-termism in the market as a whole and distracted management. Almost half (46%) wanted to see mandatory quarterly reporting scrapped.

Willars said: 'This poses a real challenge to regulators and policy makers in terms of their approach. Though in Europe there are moves to remove quarterly reporting as a requirement there might be some logic in leaving it as an option, given the mixed feelings on the individual company and market effects it is seen as having.'

ACCA's survey respondents represented a range of institutions, 150 of which each had more than $500m (£324m) in assets under management, including pension funds, insurance companies, private banks and family offices, and other asset management firms, as well as investment advisors or analysts and corporate treasurers.

The institute is conducting a four-part series of research on investors during 2013. This first report is published this week, along with a second report which reviews emerging investment developments, Understanding investors: the changing landscape.