ACCA finds trust is casualty of financial crisis

Trust has been a casualty of the financial crisis, according to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) which found that two thirds of investors are sceptical about the information companies provide.

The results emerged from a survey of 300 investors from Britain and Ireland for ACCA’s Understanding Investors’ directions for corporate reporting which found that investors believe that managers have too much discretion over the financial numbers they report. The survey found that investors place more weight in what the media say about companies then what the companies themselves say. Nearly half of investors said that annual reports were of no use.

Head of ACCA Ireland Liz Hughes said that action was needed to rebuild trust in company statements. “Accounting standard setters and regulators should be worried about the high percentage of investors who see no use to annual reports and the distrust of management discretion over company figures.”