Financial officers in India feel healthy corporate culture is critical to building trust: Survey

New Delhi, Dec 11 () A significant number of financial officers of large organisations in India feel that a healthy corporate culture is critical to building trust among stakeholders, according to a survey.

The global corporate reporting survey conducted by EY was conducted globally taking views from 1,000 chief financial officers (CFOs) and financial controllers to understand the challenges faced by them in corporate reporting. Of this, 40 respondents were from India.

"Driving culture transformation in finance is imperative to presenting a forward-looking corporate reporting based on a wider balance between financial and non-financial information," Sandip Khetan, national leader and partner, financial accounting advisory services, EY India, said.

He added that 95 per cent of the survey respondents from India said a healthy corporate culture is critical to building trust. This is key to decision making for present as well as potential investors.

Highlighting the challenges in building a trusted approach to non-financial data, 95 per cent of the India respondents indicated that governance, controls and ethical frameworks still need to be developed and refined for artificial intelligence (AI), while 85 per cent said they have concerns like security threats and regulatory risks on using AI in finance and reporting.

"60 per cent of group CFOs globally say that the quality of finance data produced by AI cannot be trusted in the same way as data from existing finance systems," according to the survey.

The top risks cited in relation to turning non-financial data into reporting information are maintaining data privacy, data security, and the lack of robust data management systems and controls for non-financial information.

As per the survey, 79 per cent of the global respondents and 98 per cent of the Indian respondents said investors want more insight into corporate culture. Besides, 74 per cent of the financial officers said investors increasingly consider non-financial information in decision making and for supporting long-term value creation. SRS HRS