February

Recent sustainability and integrated reporting developments

01 Feb, 2017

A summary of recent developments at the CRD and AccountAbility.

Participants of the Corporate Reporting Dialogue (CRD) have announced former IASB Vice-Chairman Ian Mackintosh as the Dialogue’s next Chair. The Dialogue brings together organisations that have significant international influence in the corporate reporting landscape. It is convened by the IIIRC and brings together CDP, CDSB, FASB, GRI, IASB, ISO, and SASB. Please click for the press release on the IIRC website.

AccountAbility has announced that the latest revision of the AccountAbility Principles, the AA1000AP (2017) has been opened for public consultation. The AA1000 series are widely applied for integrating and embedding sustainability and accountability into the governance and performance of organisations. Please click for the press release on the AccountAbility website.

IASB Chairman speaks on financial reporting in a digital world

01 Feb, 2017

At a conference of the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) in Bangladesh, IASB Chairman Hans Hoogervorst gave his thoughts on how technology is affecting financial reporting.

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.

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