Suffering from “compliance fatigue,” U.K. corporate executives are producing shareholder reports that keep regulators happy but risk undermining shareholder trust in their abilities, according to a report from accountants at PwC.

The problem was caused by “successive waves of ad hoc legislation, regulation, and governance requirements,” said David Phillips, head of corporate reporting at PwC.

Phillips said some companies were publishing Key Performance Indicators, because the regulations required them to, but were not then putting in the extra effort needed to explain why those indicators were so important.

“With annual reports running to many hundreds of pages, the point has come where, if companies reported less, they would actually provide more insight and understanding,” he said. “The challenge is to determine how we can streamline reporting and balance market relevance with regulatory compliance.”

In the meantime, Phillips said companies should think about the value of their narrative reporting to investors, working harder to deliver a coherent message and report information that helps users understand how performance relates to strategic aims.

“The quality of reporting is the tell-tale sign of how well a company is managed and run,” he said. “Companies that go the extra mile to get it right ensure that what they report externally is directly based on the data they use to manage the business.”

Phillips' comments are based on the findings of a PwC report—“Insight or Fatigue?"—which analyzes the corporate reporting of the FTSE 350 companies.