ECB welcomes and discusses ESAP proposal
The European Central Bank (ECB) has issued an Opinion on the establishment and functioning of the European Single Access Point (ESAP), as proposed by the European Commission in November 2021.
“The ECB views the establishment of ESAP as an important milestone in the completion of the CMU” – i.e., the Capital Markets Union – and it welcomes the proposal’s objective of providing centralised, EU-wide access to public financial and non-financial information. This, says the ECB, will make it easier for investors to identify opportunities of interest across national borders, and could give greater visibility to entities seeking funding, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises and those that are part of smaller national capital markets. “ESAP, if well-designed and implemented, will thus allow for a more efficient allocation of capital across the Union, contributing to the further development and integration of capital markets,” and serving a number of outcomes such as access to green finance and a more resilient financial system.
The ECB believes that ESAP could help overcome a number of challenges in data access, quality and comparability, and favours the integration of sustainability information with financial data. “This integration and the establishment of such a ‘one-stop shop’ containing all key information on an entity, including its sustainability profile, would benefit not only investors – thereby promoting the growth of green capital markets and creating a green CMU – but all private and public stakeholders interested in financial and sustainability reporting.”
The Opinion makes a number of specific observations on aspects of ESAP, supporting the use of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), and advocating the development of a systematic data quality framework to ensure maximum utility. It also discusses the need for a compliance framework, and the possible inclusion of historical data.
Read more here.
