Biography
Vincent Papa, PhD, CPA, FSA Credential, CFA, was the director of financial reporting policy at CFA Institute. He was responsible for representing the interests of CFA Institute on financial reporting and on wider corporate reporting developments to major accounting standard setting bodies, enhanced reporting initiatives, and key stakeholders. He is a member of ESMA’s consultative working group for the Corporate Reporting Standing Committee, EFRAG user panel, and a former member of the IFRS Advisory Council, Capital Markets Advisory Committee, and Financial Stability Board Enhanced Disclosure Task Force. Prior to joining CFA Institute, he served in investment analysis, management consulting, and auditing roles.
CFA Institute recently conducted a member survey to ascertain the best way forward on the contentious topic of alternative performance measures.
The nature of company information reported outside the primary financial statements can be thought of as falling along a financial to nonfinancial information continuum.
Across the globe over the last 20 years, far-reaching auditor-related reforms have sought to restore confidence in the role of audit in ensuring the reliability of reported company financial information.
Several publications have exhorted regulatory authorities to craft policy interventions that incentivize a long-term analytical orientation of companies’ disclosures.
If the information within primary financial statements has had a sustained and troubling decline in its relevance, what's the way forward?
Revised revenue recognition requirements become effective at the beginning of 2018, and early adopters are helping to expose the effect of the changes on amount, timing, and presentation of revenue.
Revised revenue recognition rules go into effect in 2018, but there is still uncertainty about the effects on companies reporting and investors will have to figure out company-specific implications.
Investors should consider ESG factors in their investment decision-making process, but companies’ disclosures need to be improved so investors can find useful and relevant information.
Increasingly, auditors are expected to have a bigger and more effective role in ensuring the integrity of a wider array of company reported information that is material to investment decision making.
Environment, social, and governance measures and non-GAAP financial measures are important to add to traditional financial statement information when analyzing a company’s value.