Transparency Directive Assessment Report

In May 2009, the European Commission selected Mazars to carry a study to evaluate the functioning of certain requirements imposed on listed companies by the Transparency Directive.

 

Transparency Directive Assessment cover

The aim was to collect and to analyze the opinions of key market players on the efficiency of the Directive in 15 Member States of the European Union and 6 large global financial markets outside of the EU. Thus, more than 3,500 stakeholders have been invited to participate and about 90 interviews have been conducted.

 

In the full report and the Executive Summary, you will find the key conclusions and recommendations put forward by the European Commission to improve the functioning of the Transparency Directive.

 

 They cover in particular the following:

  • There is no need to impose disclosure requirements to listed companies in additionning to those currently applicable.
  • Day to day application of the Directive can be easier if the provision are further harmonised in the EU and if a specific regime for Small and Midcaps is introduced.
  • The deadline for publication of half-yearly reports should be extended to 3 months.
  • Notification of the crossing of the thresholds should be fully harmonised, lending and borrowing of voting right should be more transparent, “empty voting” practices should be restricted, cash-settle equity swaps should be disclosed, an enhanced disclosure for significant holdings should be introduced and, a single e-notification form should be created.
  • Finally, cross-border investor’s access to regulated information should be enhanced.

 

  • Consult the full final report

 

 

  • Executive summary
  • Also available in French, Polish and Spanish.

 

  • Annex, statistics and methodology

 

 

For more information: transparency.directive@mazars.com

 

For more information on the Transparency Directive, visite the European Commission website.