The Accounting Standards Board (ASB) has this week issued 'Rising to the challenge', the report of its review of the narrative reporting of 50 UK listed companies in 2008 and 2009.
The review focused on:
- how companies are complying with the enhanced business review content requirements from the Companies Act 2006 (CA);
- effective communication and presentation of the required content; and
- areas that are leading to clutter in narrative reporting.
The review found that the best reporters continue to evolve their narrative reporting and also did well across a number of content areas. Overall, most companies provided good content in relation to their:
- financial performance and position;
- financial key performance indicators (KPIs); and
- articulation of strategy.