UK postpones ESEF
With unusual extra pressures stemming from the Covid-19 crisis, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has announced a one-year delay to the introduction of mandatory ESEF requirements in the UK.
While the introduction of machine-readable financial statements and the mandatory tagging of basic financial information was scheduled for January 2021, they will now come into effect January 2022.
Filers will, however, still be able to publish their financial reports in ESEF voluntarily from January 2021 if they wish to do so. The FCA has also adjusted its initial proposal, and maintained the original implementation date for mandatory tagging of notes to financial statements. This will, as before, apply for financial years starting from January 2022.
The FCA’s goals are clear:
We want to help issuers to focus their management and operational resources on their immediate and urgent needs in the exceptional circumstances caused by the coronavirus, without damaging the transparency and effectiveness of the UK’s capital markets. We also want to enable issuers to publish and file voluntarily their annual financial reports in the new ESEF in 2021 if they choose to do so.
We also want to achieve a smooth and effective long-term implementation of the ESEF initiative, which should enhance the transparency and efficiency of the UK’s regulated markets.
Find out more here.
