Governance in brief — FRC issues advice on annual reports for the 2018/19 reporting season
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has issued its Annual Review of Corporate Reporting and annual letter to finance directors and audit committee chairs covering its perspective on key developments for 2018/19 annual reports.
Key areas for this year’s annual reports include:
- the impact of new IFRS standards 9 & 15 and the likely future impact of IFRS 16;
- disclosure of critical judgements and estimates;
- reporting on the risks associated with Brexit;
- transparency of complex supplier arrangements;
- risk and viability reporting;
- application of the European Securities and Markets Authority's (ESMA's) Guidelines for reporting Alternative Performance Measures; and
- inclusion of a non-financial information statement in the Strategic Report – which many companies omitted in the first year of the new requirements.
Whilst none of these areas are surprising, this advice provides a timely reminder for audit committee agendas for the period ahead. In addition, with disclosure expectations increasing over recent years, and continuing to increase, audit committees should also take note of the FRC’s message around the control environment for compliance with financial reporting requirements. They have a key role to play in ensuring that these controls are robust and fit for purpose.