By Paul Cummins FCCA AITI MSc.Multimedia Systems 6 January 2005

Financial Reporting Council ( UK)

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is a unified, independent regulator.  Its aim is to promote confidence in corporate reporting and governance.  The FRC's five operating bodies are: the Accounting Standards Board, the Auditing Practices Board, the Financial Reporting Review Panel, the Accountancy Discipline and Investigation Board and the Professional Oversight Board for Accountancy.  The Council is responsible for the FRC's work on corporate governance and is assisted by a Committee on Corporate Governance, whose members are drawn from the Council.

The FRC was established in 1990 to promote good financial reportingin the UK.  Following the collapses of Enron and WorldCom in the US, the UK government commissioned two wide-ranging reviews which recognised the importance of reassuring the markets and the public at large that UK corporate reporting and governance frameworks were sufficiently robust.

There are many graphics on the website http://www.metaphorbusinessgraphics.com in the Financial Reporting section,dealing with recent regulatory reporting developments.

In January 2003, the UK's Secretary of State for Trade and Industry announced a package of reforms to raise standards of corporate governance, strengthen the accountancy and audit professions, and provide for an independent system of regulation for those professions.  The FRC was given a central role in delivering these reforms. The Government recognised the FRC's success in promoting high standards of financial reporting, and its credibility with the financial, business and accountancy professional communities.

The FRC is funded by the UK government, the accounting profession and by business