The Investor Relations Society: Helping shape the future of corporate reporting

The paper comes at an important moment for reporting reform. Digital reporting, artificial intelligence, sustainability disclosure, evolving investor expectations and regulatory change are all reshaping how companies communicate with the market.

Drawing on the Society’s policy work, consultation responses, member research and engagement with regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders, the paper argues that reform should be investor-led, proportionate and carefully sequenced.

The Society’s position is built around three themes:

Opportunity: modernisation should improve transparency, timeliness, accessibility and decision-usefulness for investors, including through greater use of digital and data-enabled reporting.

Strength: reform should build on the UK’s respected reporting framework and reinforce coherent strategic reporting.

Stability: implementation should be predictable, proportionate, internationally aligned and sensitive to issuer readiness, particularly for smaller and mid-cap companies.

The paper also highlights the continuing importance of the Annual Report as a board-approved and legally accountable anchor within an increasingly digital and multi-channel communications environment. At the same time, it explores how more modular and digitally enabled reporting could improve accessibility, usability and the delivery of information to different audiences over time. It also considers the practical role of IR teams in maintaining consistency across annual reports, results announcements, investor materials, websites and wider market dialogue.