Quarterly reporting under fire
ICAEW president David Illingworth has condemned plans for compulsory quarterly reporting across the EU saying it has only become a factor because of US accounting scandals.
Illingworth said quarterly reporting would increase the costs faced by listed companies and that in the US the measure had put pressure on companies to improve their profits constantly.
Speaking to the Financial Times Illingworth said that because of Enron there was pressure to ensure ‘quarterly earnings were always in ‘one direction’.
The European Commission would like to see quarterly reporting made mandatory by 2005, at the same time as International Financial Reporting Standards go live.