ABSTRACT
A major financial reporting development in the United Kingdom, during the first half of the twentieth century, was the publication of consolidated accounts dealing with the combined financial affairs of holding companies and their subsidiaries. Obligations to publish some form of group accounts were introduced during this period by the London Stock Exchange (1939), the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (1942) and the Companies Act 1947, 1 and each of these regulatory bodies expected the information to be published as a supplement to the traditional legal entity based accounting reports. Many company directors, recognising the severe limitations of legal entity based financial reports, had much earlier made the voluntary decision to publish group accounting information.
