RISK REPORTS must be kept "short, sharp and relevant", Financial Reporting Review Panel chief Bill Knight has insisted.

Talking at Meet the Experts, he illustrated his point using RBS's risk report from quarter-three 2008, which listed one of its major business threats as "the outbreak of a major pandemic".

Other generalities in the report included the revelation that bank performance is affected by "economic conditions particularly in the UK, US and Europe". Cue much derisive laughter.

Knight (pictured) has been chairman of the FRRP since 2004, but it is clear that the financial crisis has given him to confidence to get tough on poor reporters, at least in the relatively supportive environment of an accountancy conference.

Where was this tough talk three years ago?