It is of no surprise that the two areas highlighted most in the ESMA Public Statement on European Common Enforcement Priorities, published in October, are Covid-19 and Climate Change. To achieve best practice standards, all entities will benefit from becoming familiar with the reports. The consequences of not doing so could expose them to the rigours of enforcement measures which are available to the Authorities at a national level. All issuers have a responsibility to become familiar with the reports in their efforts to provide quality, reliable reporting. In 2021, all three continued their annual practice of publishing reports to express their views and recommendations on key areas of reporting. The UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) was a part of the network until the UK left the EU it continues its supervisory functions on a similar basis. The importance of its role is clear in these challenging times.ĮSMA operates through a network of National Enforcement Authorities, including in Ireland the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA). Financial stability - to strengthen the financial system so it can withstand shocks and the unravelling of financial imbalances, and to encourage economic growth.Orderly markets - to promote the integrity, transparency, efficiency and proper functioning of financial markets and robust market infrastructure and.Investor protection - to make sure that financial consumers' needs are better served and to strengthen their rights as investors, while also acknowledging their responsibilities.Financial Reporting Brief (FRB) shall comment on the more recent developments early in 2022.Ĭritical to the proper functioning of orderly financial markets is the role played by those Bodies responsible for their supervision, which at European level is the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
To whom it may concern in french series#
In the past year, there has been a series of significant developments in this whole area and action is being taken to develop sustainability reporting, integrate it with financial reporting and come up with a comprehensive corporate reporting model that will respond to needs and demands. The demand continues to grow from investors and others for more robust non-financial information with sustainability being high on the agenda for all entities and climate change never being far from the news as to both calamitous events and what can we all do to curtail its worst impacts going forward. In these troubled times there is a growing need for companies, and all entities, to go beyond the parameters of legal and accounting standard requirements to do everything possible to provide information to support investment and commercial decision making.
The demands on corporate reporting increasingly extend to embrace the broader commercial and societal duties owed to a wide range of stakeholders. The legal obligations to shareholders under the Companies Act and, in many cases, the financial obligations owed to bankers and others as a condition of financing arrangements continue to be in place. The sands continue to shift as to how companies report and to whom.