Management commentary (Wider corporate reporting)
Background
In order to stay at the forefront of the corporate reporting arena, the Board asked the staff to research into the role that the Board should play in this area. The staff established that there was general consensus among the various stakeholders (including regulators, policy-makers and investors) that companies should report on a broader range of factors beyond purely financial results. Moreover, it was clear that there was an appetite for greater standardisation and a consistent global reporting framework among the current plethora of codes and guidelines.
At its meeting in March 2017, the Board generally agreed that they should be playing a more active role in wider corporate reporting. The Chairman in particular believed that the Board has a vested interest in this area because all corporate reporting links to the financial statements.
At its meeting in November 2017, the Board members decided preliminarily that being the specialists in financial reporting they are best placed to provide the link between financial and non-financial information. They acknowledged that there is a practical limit as to the extent to which the revised Management Commentary Practice Statement could remove confusion from the multitudes of competing guidance out there, but they believed that revising the practice statement and making it current would allow it to serve as an anchoring point for other frameworks. One of the key points to address would be to promote alignment between financial and ‘other’ information disclosed by an entity.
Current status of the project
The IASB formally added a project to revise its Management Commentary Practice Statement to its agenda in November 2017. An exposure draft of an updated Practice Statement was published on 27 May 2021 with comments requested by 23 November 2021.
Project milestones
| Date | Development | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| March 2017 | project initially discussed by the Board | |
| November 2017 | project formally added to the IASB's agenda | |
| 27 May 2021 | ED/2021/6 Management Commentary published | comments requested by 23 November 2021 |
