Foreign Experience and International Standards in Financial Intermediaries Reporting

Abstract

Financial intermediaries, like other entities in the financial market, are required to report on the results of their economic activities. This is because the analysis of reporting serves for making investment decisions, and reporting characterizes the company's accountability. During the research, it was proven that the topic of reporting of financial intermediaries is not comprehensively studied by domestic scientists, while abroad, much more attention is paid to this issue. As a result of bibliographic analysis using the Scopus database, it was established that financial intermediaries abroad produce two types of reports: financial (regulated by IFRS) and non-financial (mostly following GRI standards). Based on the analysis of scientific works, skepticism of foreign scholars regarding the effectiveness and completeness of financial reporting was highlighted, emphasizing its inconsistency with the specifics, type, nature, and form of financial intermediaries. Some authors believe that reporting for financial intermediaries should be individualized. As for non-financial reporting, it includes a description of actions and measures taken by financial intermediaries to impact the environment, society, and the economy. The supporters of this form of reporting for financial intermediaries are a greater number of scholars, driven by the increasing relevance and necessity of reporting on sustainability in the world to assess and timely regulate its impact. Thus, the shortcomings of IFRS are intertwined with the advantages of disclosing information according to ESG criteria by financial intermediaries, although the issues of methodology and content of such reports remain open. At the same time, analytical analysis of the number of financial intermediaries allowed to identify that those subjects of the financial sector operating in the eurozone additionally produce a consolidated report to the European Bank and the National Bank of the country where they operate. Therefore, the study has a summarizing nature and will serve as a basis for further scientific research on issues such as: systematization and analytical interpretation of non-financial reporting of financial intermediaries; development of a unified scheme of financial and non-financial reporting of financial intermediaries, etc.