Our Financial Reporting Expert Group contributed to our response to the FRC's consultation on its corporate reporting research activities.
Although we largely welcomed the four potential projects that might be undertaken by the FRC, we commented that we would like to see the FRC undertake research on extractive industries, given the significance of such companies to the UK capital markets. In light of this, we encouraged the FRC to consider examining how to replace IFRS 6.
We commented that we would give the project on non-exchange transactions a lower priority than the others (including extractive industries).
We encouraged the FRC to undertake further research into how corporate communications as a whole might better serve investors’ needs. We commented that there should be more analysis into the specific purpose of corporate communications, with a focus on the materiality of decisions and what companies should include in such communications.
Furthermore, we also encouraged the FRC to undertake research into what the needs of stakeholders, other than investors, are and whether corporate reporting, aimed at investors, is the right way for those needs to be fulfilled. We noted that such a project should seek to define who the stakeholders are and how far companies should be obliged to go in meeting their reporting demands.
