The Accounting Standards Board (ASB) has issued a statement, ‘Half-yearly financial reports’ (please note: there is an error on page 24 of the Statement - the word 'not' in the first line should be removed). The statement updates and replaces the ASB’s September 1997 statement ‘Interim Reports’, which is now formally withdrawn.

The statement is designed to provide guidance for any UK and Irish entities that are required or voluntarily choose to prepare half-yearly financial reports, other than those required by the Disclosure and Transparency Rules (DTR){ of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Irish equivalent as laid out in legislation to apply International Accounting Standard (IAS) 34 ‘Interim Financial Reporting’. UK issuers not required to apply IAS 34 can satisfy the requirement in the DTR for the half-yearly financial reports by following the provisions of the statement.

The DTR clarify that issuers can satisfy the requirement for half-yearly financial reports to give a true and fair view by a statement that they have been prepared in accordance with pronouncements by the Accounting Standards Board (ASB). The FSA has effectively mandated the use of the statement. The FSA rule is in all cases subject to the condition that the person making the ‘true and fair’ statement has reasonable grounds to be satisfied that the condensed set of financial statements prepared in accordance with the applicable set of accounting standards is not misleading.

Irish issuers subject to the Transparency Directive are also effectively mandated to use the statement by virtue of section 8 (5)(d)(ii) of the Transparency (Directive 2004/109/EC) Regulations 2007 as outlined in paragraph A13 of Appendix A of the statement.