Corporate reporting - From compliance to competitive edge

Today’s business information and reporting is under fire from companies, investors, government and regulators alike. In response, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has published a paper called "Corporate reporting - From Compliance to Competitive Edge" which explains why today's business information and reporting is falling short, what's driving change, where insight is missing and how companies can take action. This report incorporates some of the findings from the PwC annual survey of the quality of FTSE 350 reporting.

(For more information on recent developments, visit the PwC corporate reporting website and also see the PwC Corporate Reporting Blog by David Phillips, Senior Corporate Reporting Partner in the Assurance practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.)

Announcing the Investis Online IR Rankings

Investis Online IR Rankings, a unique free feature, aims to help investor relations professionals identify companies that are international leaders in online IR communications. The initial rankings cover major international stock exchanges, including the S&P 100 index of the largest US companies, the FTSE 100 of the largest UK-listed companies, the DAX index of blue chip German companies, the Italian FTSE MIB index, and Finland’s OMXH 25. New indexes will be added in future quarterly updates to eventually cover about 800 companies, which will be reviewed twice per year.

The evaluations are conducted by Investis, a leading corporate website service provider based in London, and validated through random sampling by IR Web Report. Investis has been evaluating corporate websites for its IQ Benchmarking service since 2008. The Online IR Rankings are an offshoot of its corporate website rankings and use an IR-focused scoring system devised by IR Web Report. For more information, see the October 25, 2011 posting “Introducing the Investis Online IR Rankings” by Dominic Jones at IR Web Report online.

Canada - Advisory Committee on Canadian Securities Regulator

The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Canada's Minister of Finance, has announced the appointment of the members of the Advisory Committee of Participating Provinces and Territories to the Canadian Securities Transition Office, which is leading Canada's efforts to establish a Canadian securities regulator. The Advisory Committee will provide advice on the transition to a Canadian securities regulator. As part of its work plan, the Transition Office is consulting with provinces and territories, securities experts and legal advisors.(Read the Press Release.)

XBRL Around the World

XBRL is evolving everywhere, driven by various stakeholders such as governments, stock exchanges, banks and other industry sectors. While the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been finalizing its proposed rule requiring public companies and mutual funds to file their financial reports in interactive data, this article puts the progress in a global context. (Read the Journal of Accountancy article XBRL Around the World.)

Corporate Reporting on the Internet - Stock exchange perspective

In 2003, the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) updated Electronic Communications Disclosure Guidelines. The TSX strongly recommends that all listed issuers maintain a corporate web site to make investor relations information available electronically. It also maintains that disclosure by the Internet alone will not meet an issuer’s disclosure requirements and an issuer must continue to use traditional means of dissemination. The overall objective is to encourage the use of electronic media to make investor information accessible, accurate and timely. The challenge is to ensure that regulatory concerns are addressed without impeding innovation.

World Federation of Exchanges supports IFRS

Responding to a consultation paper of the IOSCO Technical Committee, the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) explained the importance of sound financial reporting to public capital markets. It reaffirmed the WFE's strong support of IFRS. The WFE is the global organisation of 54 regulated exchanges from all regions of the world that account for over 97% of world stock market capitalization.