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. He therefore pointed the IASB's 'Better Communication' initiative and the focus on digital reporting and the IFRS Taxonomy that is also included in it as 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.

A full transcript of Mr Hoogervorst's remarks is available on the IASB website.