European Securities and Markets Authority Proposes Improvements to Transparency Directive

The European Securities and Markets Authority has written to the European Commission proposing a series of improvements to the EU Transparency Directive, taking account of lessons learned in the Wirecard case. Wirecard, a German payments group, collapsed in 2018 when it was revealed that €1.9bn was missing from its public accounts. Several of its senior managers remain under police investigation for alleged crimes including fraud and market manipulation. In ESMA's view, the case has highlighted the need for timely and effective enforcement of financial information and proposes the following amendments to the EU Transparency Directive to help achieve this:
 

• Greater cooperation between the EU national regulators responsible for enforcement of financial information and other areas such as prudential supervision, audit oversight, prospectus approval, market oversight and anti-money laundering supervision;
• Improved coordination of enforcement of financial information requirements at national level;
• Strengthening of the independence of the EU national regulators in charge of enforcement of financial information; and
• Strengthening the harmonized supervision of information across the EU, which would include granting EU authorities the power to carry out on-site inspections and require information and documents to be provided by auditors, issuers and shareholders.

View ESMA's proposed improvements to the Transparency Directive.

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