On 27 October 2015, ESMA published a public statement on improving the quality of disclosures in IFRS financial statements to address concerns surrounding the lack of relevant information and increasing size of annual reports.
ESMA proposes that the following principles be considered with regards to disclosures made in annual reports:
- Provide information that is as entity specific as possible and avoid boilerplate language;
- Provide information that is necessary to understand the issuer's financial performance and position;
- Use the materiality concept under IFRS more effectively and remove irrelevant information;
- Financial statements should be as clear and concise as possible; and
- Issuers and auditors should ensure that financial statements and supporting documents are consistent.
A copy of the report is available here:
https://www.esma.europa.eu/search/site/quality%2520of%2520disclosures
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