The SmithsRatings® 2011, launched today, found that the banking and insurance sectors are leading the way in risk reporting, the most improved category within annual reporting overall.

The report is the seventh edition of Living Reporting’s annual analysis of online annual reporting in FTSE 350 companies. Nick Smith, the author of the report and managing director of Living Reporting, ascribes the financial sector’s high scores to the external pressure for transparency due to the recent economic collapse.

44% of FTSE 350 companies now produce an HTML online annual report, an increase from 39% in the 2009 findings.  Smith believes that by next year, a majority of the companies will be doing so: “Based on the 5/6% increase we’ve seen this year, and the pressure on companies which will only increase, I think we’ll be above 50\5 next year. It only really needs one more sector to step up to the plate.”

But the chances of the entire FTSE ever really engaging with online reporting are negligible, according to Smith. “We don’t really know if it’ll ever go above 75% - because if you’re a company with minimal shareholders, and you can get away with an interactive PDF (which are not included in the SmithsRatings), you will because it’s cheap. Companies who are less inclined to consider their audiences may not ever come round.”