Constructing Bank of America's 2017 Mock Integrated Report: Experiment No. 3

Abstract

Our third integrated reporting experiment focused on the financial sector. We wanted to determine whether we could replicate our earlier work to construct an integrated report based on information that a company had provided in the public domain and whether the task would be more or less difficult and time consuming than our previous work. We also wanted to evaluate the extent to which this report would reflect the guidance in the International Integrated Reporting Council’s integrated reporting framework, capture FCLTGlobal’s 10 elements of a long-term strategy, and respond to the questions raised by the Strategic Investor Initiative in their February 2018 letter to CEOs regarding long-term plans. We selected a company in the banking and financial services sector — Bank of America Corporation. We constructed a “decent” first integrated report in about 40 hours. The report was good in its discussion of values, culture, and purpose; stakeholder engagement; human capital; governance; and risk management. Major flaws related to the depth of disclosure about long-term strategy and the absence of medium- and long-term metrics.