IASB Chairman speaks on financial reporting in a digital world

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Jan 31, 2017

In January 2017, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) released a speech by IASB Chairman Hans Hoogervorst, where he gave his thoughts on how technology is affecting financial reporting at a conference of the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) in Bangladesh.

As the conference's focus was "Navigating Through Digital Transformation Towards Better Accountability", Mr. Hoogervorst expanded on the relation between digital reporting and financial reports:

I have been asked if financial reports will become redundant as investors and others get more direct access to a wider range of information. I don’t think that will happen. Nine in ten investors surveyed by the CFA Institute say that annual reports are important to them. The more information that becomes available, the more important it is to be able to sift trustworthy information from the more spurious. Financial statements will remain relevant, even in a digital world.

Mr. Hoogervorst then went on to explain that while digital reporting developments offer a host of new opportunities they also need to be complemented by "analogue" developments and the fact that investors increasingly consume financial information electronically also meant that part of the IASB's job was to make it easy for them to access IFRS data in that manner.

Review the full transcript of Mr. Hoogervorst's remarks on the IASB's website.

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