The current financial crisis demonstrates that the disclosure of accurate and timely information about securities issuers is essential. The document describes the impact of the Transparency Directive and how it has been complied with. It also presents the main issues emerging from its application.
This Commission staff working document reviews the operation of Directive 2004/109/EC1 on the harmonisation of transparency requirements in relation to information about issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market (hereinafter the "Transparency Directive"). It supplements the Report from the Commission on the operation of this Directive.
The Transparency Directive requires issuers of securities in regulated markets within the EU to ensure appropriate transparency for investors through the disclosure of regulated information and its dissemination to the public throughout the EU. Such information consists of financial reports, information on major holdings of voting rights and information disclosed pursuant to Article 6 of the Market Abuse Directive.
The objectives pursued by the Transparency Directive are important to financial markets and recognised by international standard setting bodies, such as IOSCO or the OECD. The current financial crisis demonstrates that the disclosure of accurate, comprehensive and timely information about securities issuers is essential in order to build sustained investor confidence and allow an informed assessment of their business performance and assets (see Annex 1 for further detail on the Transparency Directive and its importance for financial markets).
This Commission staff working document is based in part on external studies conducted for the Commission and information collected from stakeholders and other external sources (see Annex 2 for further detail on the methodology of this report). This document (1) describes the impact of the Transparency Directive and how it has been complied with; and (2) presents the main issues emerging from the application of the Directive. This document is completed by several annexes.
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