상장법인의 재무제표 공시제도에 대한 검토: 사업보고서와 분기·반기보고서를 중심으로

A number of changes in financial disclosure requirements have been made by regulatory authorities since 1997 in Korea. Korean listed companies required to publish annual, quarterly(first and third quarter), and interim report(here after, "annual report") including financial and non-financial information in accordance with Securities and Exchange Act (here after, "SEA"). The financial information should contain statements by the persons taking responsibility for the report, financial statements(individual as well as consolidated), and an audit(or review) report by the statutory auditors on the financial statements. Companies disclosure information through electronic media named Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System (here after, "DART") which is based on Regulation on Securities Issuance and Disclosure. DART is an electronic disclosure system that allows companies to submit disclosures online, where it becomes immediately available to investors and the other users. DART was wholly marked up using an SGML (Standard Generalized Markup language), but on October 1, 2007, the authority issued a rule that enforced companies to furnish financial statements using XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) through the SEC's DART. The use of XBRL will provide major benefits in the presentation, analysis and communication of business information through cost savings, greater efficiency and improved reliability to all those involved in supplying or using financial statements. This paper studies the above mentioned institutional backgrounds and actual state of financial disclosures by listed companies in Korea. The main contribution of this paper is to propose some ideas to enhance financial disclosure system. we find the followings. First, Independent auditors perform an audit of financial statements and a review of internal control systems and interim financial statements, but there are no definitions of an audit and a review in Law of Independent Audit of Stock Company (here after, "IASC"). Unlike an audit, a review ordinarily does not require tests of the accounting records through inspection, observation or confirmation. Procedures for performing a review of interim financial information are ordinarily limited to making inquiries and analytical and other review procedure. Therefore, We think that it is needed to stipulate the specifications of an audit and a review in IASC. Second, Current independent auditors' report attaches the ratios represent profitability, growth, and financial stability. But these ratios are likely to make expectation gap between auditors and information users. It is desirable to exclude these ratios in the auditors' report to clear up their responsibilities Third, It is expected that instant documents, the XBRL files in which companies transmit their data in a structured manner, will be created for individual financial report. Once the data is created in XBRL, different types of reports using various subsets of the information can be automatically produced with minimal effort and reduced errors because reports are generated by working off the original data, not a typed version. It is possible to distribute financial statements containing auditors' opinion to enter auditors' report in XBRL annual report. Fourth, In the analysis of financial reporting cases, most of the companies did not enter appropriate notes to financial statements in the annual report. It cannot be said whole or perfect financial statements lack informations needed to help information users' decision. It must be enforced that annual report has the financial statements including notes.