European Commission puts forward new rules to support digitalisation and transparency of companies' financial reports

03 June 2019

The Commission has put forward new rules to support the digitalisation of corporate reporting and to achieve greater transparency of the yearly information disclosed by companies listed in the EU capital markets.

The new European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) will make companies' financial records more readable and accessible. Under the new rules, from January 2020 all listed companies will need to finalise their annual financial reports using up-to-date digitalised business reporting systems (XHTML and iXBRL) which improve accessibility, and make the information much more user-friendly. The move will also facilitate the availability of key financial information in all EU official languages. In support of these new rules, the ESMA has prepared an ESEF Reporting Manual and ESEF taxonomy files to help companies in their preparation. The new provisions build on financial transparency rules already agreed by European Parliament and Member States. They will be updated on a yearly basis to reflect possible updates to the IFRS taxonomy, which aims to improve communication between preparers and users of financial statements. This delegated regulation represents another important step for the digitalisation of corporate reporting, in line with the political commitment of the 'Ministerial Declaration on eGovernment', signed in Tallinn on 6 October 2017.

Full press release

IASB´s related press release

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