Malcolm Finn, financial controller at Costa, considers the pace of regulatory change with the increasing demand for better reporting that differentiates companies and gives shareholders better insight into KPIs and financials
With the regulatory bar getting ever higher and the apparent incessant incremental change in regulation there is an antagonism between responding to regulation and continuing to be ‘clear and concise’.
Four years ago, I took a swing at the topic of ‘the future of corporate reporting’ in a presentation made to FTSE investor relations officers on an Investor Relations Society (IRS) panel. Clearly, there is some inbuilt, time-based ignorance in trying to predict the future but I began to set out some context, trends, themes and thoughts, and some implications arising from them.
There were four key themes: the importance of getting the basics right and obviously producing an annual report that complies with the relevant laws and regulations; raising the question as to what extent non-financial disclosures should be led by the market or by regulation; considering design thinking to effect real meaningful change rather than incessant incremental change; and considering how organisations could customise their reporting rather than ‘just adding water’.
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