The better communication discussion was for a large part held under Chatham House rules but saw directly attributable contributions by IASB Chairman Hans Hoogervorst who explained the IASB's position around alternative performance measures and the IASB's primary financial statements project. He believed that the IASB "should definitely have a go at defining EBIT" – a position also evidenced by the Board discussions on primary financial statements in March 2017 and the recently published discussion paper on principles of disclosures, which features a section on the use of performance measures in the financial statements.

Gary Baker, managing director of CFA Institute in EMEA, stressed there is a need to improve the presentation of financial statements to investors and to better connect all the different strands of information released by companies and pointed at the institute's recent studies on non-GAAP financial measures.

The article summarising the event on 29 March is available here.