20 February 2020. The Commission has today launched a public consultation on the review of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD). This Directive requires certain large companies to include a non-financial statement (e.g. on environmental or social issues) as part of their annual public reporting obligations.
Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President, said, “Tackling climate change has implications across the board, including on corporate reporting. Our transformation to a carbon-neutral economy means that people need more information from the companies they are investing in. As things stand today, there is currently a sustainability reporting gap that is hampering progress towards a sustainable financial system. The needs of investors for corporate sustainability information are growing faster than any improvements in company reporting. ”
CONSULTATION DOCUMENT: REVIEW OF THE NON-FINANCIAL REPORTING DIRECTIVE
5. DIGITISATION The EU has introduced a structured data standard, the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) under the Transparency Directive. With effect from 1 January 2020 listed companies in the EU shall report their annual financial reports in XHTML (audited financial statements, management report and issuer’s responsibility statements). Additionally, if the consolidated financial statements are prepared in IFRS, the XHTML document should also be tagged using iXBRL elements specified in the ESEF taxonomy. This allows the information to be machine-readable. 

06 February 2020. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, has today published its Strategy on Sustainable Finance. Steven Maijoor, Chair, said: The financial markets are at a point of change with investor preferences shifting towards green and socially responsible products, and with sustainability factors increasingly affecting the risks, returns and value of investments.
The strategy sets out how ESMA will place sustainability at the core of its activities by embedding Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors in its work. (Page 4) The enhanced regulatory framework increases, through a single set of standards, transparency obligations and enhancement of due diligence processes on financial markets participants in relation to ESG. It should ensure that the risk of “greenwashing” is reduced and that investors are informed about, and can compare, the ESG credentials of their investments.

ESEF bijeenkomst XBRL NL.  ‘s-Hertogenbosch 5 March, Zeist 11 March 2020

48th WCARS – Continuous Auditing and Reporting. Madrid, 23-24 April 2020

ESMA Meet-The-Market, EIOPA Meet-The-Market and 27th Eurofiling Conference. Madrid, 25-26-27 May 2020

See full information at www.greenfiling.info

Goal: Create an extensible reporting framework, for financial and non-financial entities, on the climate change footprint, suitable for use in any Jurisdiction and with any metrics, in line with regulatory reporting frameworks. The framework will be metrics-agnostic, oriented to structured data, taking advantage of the lessons learnt in Banking and Insurance reporting taxonomies, supported by Data Point Model methodology and being Internet-ready (XHTML plus iXBRL).

This is the third video of a set of tutorials which ESMA is preparing to inform all relevant market participants of the new requirements set out by the ESEF regulation starting in 2020 and will impact all issuers within the Transparency Directive.

• Third video tutorial (7’11”) and script published on 11 Sep 2019
• Second video tutorial (13’03”) and script published on 28 Feb 2019
• First video tutorial (11’15”) and script published on 19 Nov 2018

Q&A on the RTS on European Single Electronic Format (ESEF)
Transparency requirements for listed companies in the EU

The European Banking Federation has published a visionary manifest which addresses topics of interest for the Eurofiling Community. Click into the image to download BOOSTING EUROPE as pdf.

Eurofiling Conference
June 17-18-19, 2019
Hosted by the ECB, Frankfurt

Register at http://2019.eurofiling.info/register

Programme

MONDAY JUNE 17, 2019

ESMA Meet-the-Market session on the ESEF format and iXBRL
Tutorials on Supervisory Reporting, Data Point Modeling, …

TUESDAY JUNE 18, 2019

Main stage day focusing on the present

Topics: Supervisory Reporting, Statistical Reporting, CRDIV, Solvency II, AnaCredit, MIFIDII, standards (XBRL, SDMX, ISO20022, LEI, IFRS, etc)

Opening keynote speech by François Laurent, European Central Bank

• keynote speech by Jo Swyngedouw, interim Chair at EBA
• keynotes from ECB, EIOPA, ESMA, SRB about the current state of play with supervisory and statistical reporting, strategies about data collection and the fitness of existing regulation.
• executive updates about this year’s XBRL Taxonomy roadmaps and expected timelines for reporting by the industry to their National Competent Authorities.
• parallel track sessions from academic and innovative speakers about novelties and analyses and technical updates from “the ones who know”

WEDNESDAY JUNE 19, 2019

Main stage day focusing on the future

Topics: future of Supervisory Reporting in the digital age, Sustainability, IReF, SDD/BIRD, Blockchain, EC Quantum Flagship, eIDAS, AML, SBR, etc..

Opening keynote speech by Werner Bier, Deputy Director DG Statistics, European Central Bank

• key note speeches from various specialists on various topics
• more on the IReF initiative from the ECB
• BIRD and the Single Data Dictionary
• Harmonisation initiatives around the Anti-Money-Laundry theme
• Machine Learning initiatives at the regulatory side
• panels on Blockchain, digital age and quantum tech
• …

More information and more details soon on http://2019.eurofiling.info/

The Organizing Committee

European Commission has given its green light on endorsement of the RTS on ESEF. The final text of the Commission’s legislative proposal (delegated act) sent to the Council and to the European Parliament can be accessed at this link in all official languages of the EU. Please note that this delegated act is still subject to the right of the European Parliament and of the Council to express objections, in accordance with Article 290 (2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It is expected that the objection period will be 3 months renewable once. If no objections are raised at the expiry of this period, the text will enter into force upon Publication in the Official Journal.

ESMA has published in November 2018 a tutorial on the upcoming ESEF format, which will be used as from January 2021 by Europe’s stock-listed companies.

The text is available via this link