Current standards of corporate reporting in the UK are 'good' and 'there continues to be an improvement in the general quality of US GAAP and IFRS annual reports and accounts'. Those are the conclusions of the review that scrutinises company's yearly accounts, released by the Financial Reporting Review Panel today. Each year, the regulator reviews around 300 sets of accounts, and this year has already looked at 30 large companies to review the adequacy of their impairment disclosures, having informed them of its actions last year. The review of accounts to the year 31 March 2009, reveals that 112 out of 326 companies were approached by the panel to give them further information about their accounts, with 68 having to date reflected the Panel's recommendations in their future reporting. Room for improvement came in the form of all companies reviewed needing to improve disclosures of financial risks, judgments related to the application of accounting policies and sources of estimation uncertainty. 'Many markets remain highly volatile and this should be reflected in informative company specific disclosures about the effects of these uncertainties on the amounts reported in their accounts,' it said. Bill Knight, chairman of the panel, said that directors are encouraged to pay particular attention to the risks and uncertainties currently facing their companies. 'Disclosure should be full, frank and company-specific and should avoid generic descriptions of the economy which do not help users to understand how the board is responding to the challenges faced by their particular company. 'This approach is all the more important in the context of a reporting framework which relies increasingly on a management approach, based on information used internally by the board to manage their business.'