ESMA has also taken the opportunity to remind issuers of the need to improve the quality of financial statements and other financial reporting. With this in mind, ESMA simultaneously published a ‘Public Statement’ entitled Improving the Quality of Disclosures in the Financial Statements. Coincidentally, the IASB published its draft ‘Practice Statement’ on the application of materiality to financial statements around the same time.

Hopefully, these various initiatives should encourage issuers to rethink their financial statements and the layout and content of the notes…