Asset owners: corporate reporting project needs you!

Institutional investors such as pension funds and asset managers are being asked to provide input into a new project looking at the future of corporate reporting that will feed into the G20 summit in Paris next year.
The Tomorrow’s Corporate Reporting initiative has been launched by Tomorrow’s Company, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
They’ve set up a global study to assess the changes needed to make corporate reporting fit for purpose in the wake of the financial crisis. The group have issued a call for evidence, seeking contributions from all market participants.
“We are calling for evidence from all those who have an interest in making corporate reporting work better and are inviting you to give us your views to help shape our thinking,” the group says.
Signatories to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment have been invited to participate in the project through the PRI Engagement Clearinghouse.
The project members say corporate reporting “provides the building blocks of information” for investors and other stakeholders, defining corporate reporting as “all the mechanisms by which companies communicate their performance and activity to their stakeholders, with a particularemphasis on the flow of information into the investment community”.
Tomorrow’s Company chief executive Tony Manwaring said the project hopes to align the process of corporate reporting with the needs of the key players such as pension funds, pension fund trustees and asset managers.
He said: “To what extent do they use corporate reporting information and to what extent do they discount it? What specific proposals would they have regarding how reporting information is commissioned and designed?”
Among the questions posed is the degree to which investors and other actors such as accountants, standard setters and management incentivised to engage in any dialogue about changing the reporting model? And is the level of technical knowledge and understanding of financial and non-financial information and metrics a barrier? Manwaring added that apart from the call for evidence, the project would also welcome any approaches from the institutional community in terms of funding the project going forward.
The deadline for submissions is September 17 via evidence@tomorrowscompany.com
Note: Tomorrow’s Corporate Reporting project is supported by Responsible Investor.