Looking Beyond The Numbers

Review of banks' annual reports

Background

There has been an unprecedented level of interest in banks' financial statements during the last few years. Debate has taken place at G20 meetings and in parliamentary enquiries and stories about banks, including their reported performance, feature daily in our newspapers. The new Interim Financial Policy Committee and the Financial Services Authority are taking an active interest in information reported by banks. Given this scrutiny, it is timely to take a step back and evaluate the UK banks' most recent annual reports.

Key findings

The main findings of our report are:

• Banks' annual reports have evolved over the last few years in an effort to provide all stakeholders with the information they demand. Change has also been driven by the industry and demands from regulators for enhanced and more clearly comparable disclosures. Consequently disclosures have extended beyond that mandated by accounting standards.