ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), the global body for professional accountants and Pearl Initiative, the not-for-profit organisation working to raise corporate governance levels across the Gulf Region, today gathered the top finance professionals for a forum to discuss integrated reporting (IR) and the relating challenges and opportunities relating to the adoption of this practice in MENASA region.
The forum was part of the ACCA Council's biennial international meeting with senior delegations visiting the region to better understand how the accountancy profession is supporting growing economies in the Middle East and South Asia (MESA). This important trip is to ensure that Council members to learn first-hand from businesses, policymakers and learning providers how the economies of this broad and diverse region offer a wealth of potential.
New research by the ACCA of finance professionals and their attitude towards IR and found that 40% were actively taking steps to introduce IR policies in the next few years, whilst 60% had yet to do so due to the complexity of changing accounting systems. Findings from a previous report ACCA report demonstrated appetite from the investor community to adopt IR practices with 93 per cent of investors expressing support for IR putting additional pressure on finance professionals to implement IR systems.
Those attending today's forum agreed that companies across MENA should embrace IR systems to ensure our region enjoys the significant benefits such as greater risk management and better relationships with external stakeholders.
Helen Brand OBE, Chief Executive, ACCA commented: "The journey towards integrated reporting aims to give a full picture of a company's comprehensive business performance - integrating financial and non-financial factors. Co-ordinated thinking is important given the speed at which business moves these days. What our research shows is that there is an element of seeing who pulls the IR trigger first amongst the finance professional community, but those who do will be ahead of the game."
Imelda Dunlop, Executive Director of The Pearl Initiative, explained: "Companies in the Middle East have undergone a massive shift in attitude towards corporate governance sparked in part by the financial crisis of 2008. In talking with our Partner Companies, we have found that many are examining their value creation measurement and reporting processes as a way of mitigating risk. As corporate responsibility reports become more strategic, material and quantitative, and we are seeing the next step of the evolution through combined corporate responsibility and financial annual reports, there is a natural path towards true strategic integrated reporting."
For more information, please contact:
Nicola Hooper, nhooper@bell-pottinger.com +971 55 886 2254
ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants. We aim to offer business-relevant, first-choice qualifications to people of application, ability and ambition around the world who seek a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management.
We support our 162,000 members and 428,000 students in 173 countries, helping them to develop successful careers in accounting and business, with the skills required by employers. We work through a network of over 89 offices and centres and more than 8,500 Approved Employers worldwide, who provide high standards of employee learning and development. Through our public interest remit, we promote appropriate regulation of accounting and conduct relevant research to ensure accountancy continues to grow in reputation and influence.
Founded in 1904, ACCA has consistently held unique core values: opportunity, diversity, innovation, integrity and accountability. We believe that accountants bring value to economies in all stages of development and seek to develop capacity in the profession and encourage the adoption of global standards. Our values are aligned to the needs of employers in all sectors and we ensure that through our qualifications, we prepare accountants for business. We seek to open up the profession to people of all backgrounds and remove artificial barriers, innovating our qualifications and delivery to meet the diverse needs of trainee professionals and their employers.
© Press Release 2014
